NBC 7's Derek Togerson takes a look at how Chargers head coach Mike McCoy may be hindering the team in more ways than one in this commentary
Chargers fans are fed up. Shoot, they're outright mad. After Sunday's meltdown where San Diego's pro football team quite literally gave away a 13-point lead with less than seven minutes to play (fumbles on consecutive plays that lead to a pair of touchdown drives is considered gift-wrapping a win in the NFL) the Bolts backers are out for blood and they want to leech it from head coach Mike McCoy.
According to TweetReach, which tracks activity on Twitter, in the hours from the end of the game until mid-day on Monday the hashtag #FireMcCoy showed up on nearly 46,000 feeds on the social media site. That's a lot.
McCoy's job performance has left a lot to be desired. After the Saints loss he admitted as much. "I did a terrible job," said McCoy as he took the blame for the 35-34 loss. But McCoy's losing ways have moved beyond wins and losses on the gridiron. The head coach has strangely become one of the biggest obstacles in the team's attempt to get a stadium built.
Although the vote for a new Downtown San Diego stadium/convention center hybrid should be about fiscal responsibility and how to spend tax dollars, it is nearly impossible to separate emotion from a topic involving the National Football League. The most die-hard of San Diego Bolts supporters will be voting in support of Measure C regardless of the team's record.
However, those who are on the fence or showing only lukewarm support still need a little convincing. As I've said many times, San Diego sports fans will invest in a team if they believe the team is investing in them. Fans here want to vote to give a team a stadium if they believe that team is fully driven to give those fans a victory parade.
Here is the problem and how McCoy fits in. It doesn’t take much more than a quick perusal of social media sites to see that fans (voters) see McCoy as the symbol of losing. As long as Dean and John Spanos continue to leave McCoy in place the fan base will take it to mean the team does not care about winning. If the team does not care about winning the fan base will not be in any hurry to support a tax hike for a new stadium, even if it doesn't (as the Chargers keep saying) "cost San Diegans a dime."
It’s a fairly easy line of reasoning to follow and certainly understandable. I conducted a Twitter poll asking this question:
If the Chargers fire Mike McCoy would you be more inclined to vote in favor of Measure C?
More than 650 votes came in with a staggering 71-percent saying Yes, they would be more open to voting Yes on C if the Chargers made a change at the head coach position. Fair or not, Mike McCoy has become the target for all the anger and frustration the community feels about its team’s current situation.
This little experiment was surely not conducted scientifically and was only seen by people who are somehow connected to me on social media so the sample size is not all that large and (given my following) very likely consists of mostly sports fans. But the number of people who say they’d be motivated to support the ballot initiative if a coaching change occurred is not insignificant. Plus it almost definitely would have an impact on the team’s win-loss record, and that alone is worth a few votes.
