NBC 7 SportsWrap reporter Derek Togerson offers commentary on the Chargers' final home game on Sunday
Chargers fans … raise your hand if you cried on Sunday.
Go ahead, it’s OK. My hand is up, too. You deserve to let it all out.
Heading in to what could be the final NFL game the Chargers ever play in San Diego nobody had any idea what to expect. Was it going to be full? Empty? Angry? Sad? Nostalgic? Any one of those reactions would have been understandable. I was expecting a little bit of it all. What I saw blew me away.
That was an outright celebration, a cathartic three and a half hours where Chargers fans were able to forget about what they’ve endured this year and just be happy again.
The 2015 season has been arguably the worst in the 54-year history of the San Diego Chargers. The fan base has been ignored, neglected and borderline insulted by the team’s ownership group. The product on the field has been one of the worst in the NFL.
But on Sunday Qualcomm Stadium felt like it did in 2006, when the team went 14-2. It was rocking. Instead of allowing all the disappointment and bitterness of this year keep them down, resigned to a subdued procession through what turned out to be a 30-14 win over the Dolphins, the Chargers fan base emerged from its season-long cocoon and made up for lost time.
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“It was a special day,” said quarterback Philip Rivers, who proceeded to choke up as he spoke. “If it is the last one … that was kind of what I told the guys before the game. They’ve been playing football in the town before any of us were born. There are people that are going to be at that game today that were coming to games before we were born. We get to close it out. If it is the end, we get to finish it off. Hopefully, the fans that have seen it over the years and the players that have played in there can be proud today that we at least ended it the right way.”
What was truly striking was the way the fan base conducted itself. With a few exceptions it was a fun, positive day. The vibe was one of, “If this is our last ride then we’re going out with guns a-blazing!” The fans were respectful and, given the situation, that’s not how every city would have handled it.
I walked through the seats for a while and cannot count how many people said they aren’t concerned about the future. For that day, for the next 60 minutes of football, all they wanted to do it beat the tar out of the Dolphins. That stadium was, against all odds, filled with hope, and that is downright inspiring.
More than 66,000 people attended the game. Afterwards thousands … literally thousands of them stuck around to soak in as much of it as they could. Rivers and Eric Weddle and Antonio Gates and Malcom Floyd and Mike Scifres and Mike McCoy all went back to the field, circling it and signing autographs for hours after the final seconds ticked off the clock.
This city and the people in it mean something to the players and the players mean something to the people in this city.
I hate it when people say San Diego is not a good sports town. This is a tremendous sports town. I used to work in Philadelphia, a place known for its over-the-top fanaticism. Those people are around more consistently, sure. There are a lot more people in the 4th-largest media market in America to pull from than San Diego has.
I followed the Sixers to the NBA Finals and the Eagles and Flyers to the playoffs and I will tell you right now, none of those environments can hold a candle to what happens when teams win in San Diego. But it even goes beyond winning. All we need is for the teams to show they’re making the same investment in us that we are making in them. Don’t just take our money and in return put out a sub-par product. All it takes is a little effort.
Just look at what happened with the Padres last year. General Manager A.J. Preller came in and tried to build a winner. The new ownership group poured money in to the roster. Lo and behold, the fans showed up. The Friars averaged more than 30,000 fans a game for the first time since 2007, even though they finished 14 games under .500.
The Padres tried and San Diego responded. I know a lot of NFL owners think Chargers owner Dean Spanos deserves to get out of San Diego. They hear him cry foul over not getting a stadium deal done in 14 years and I understand his frustration, I really do. But he needs to understand the frustration of his fan base, too.
How many times, realistically, has he really tried to put a winner on the field? If he makes the investment in us, we’ll make the investment in him. That doesn’t seem too much to ask, now does it?
I have no idea if that’s going to happen or not. What I do know is Sunday in San Diego was, as Philip said, special. It’s the people, the fans of America’s Finest City that made it that way. Those are the people who deserve better than they’re getting.
San Diego sports fans, I am proud as hell of you.
