I think what’s sad about this is that it seems he’s successfully gaslit the players. They now believe they’re 100% the problem when 80% of the problem is actually scheme.

Lol literally every one of these comments is basically “lol no.”

Or as Staley put it, Herbert “gave them a chance to win.”

He says nothing was wrong schematically, just that players didn’t bring the energy, they missed tackles, they didn’t execute fundamentals, etc.

I might be able to get on board with this mentality if players and coaches weren’t being paid millions of dollars to do their job. But since they are, the “hey guys hang in there you can do it!” type of thinking is ridiculous to me.

What’s the point of saying this though? I’m not asking rhetorically. Like, what is to be gained by saying we could have been 8-1? To say that we just need better luck? That we just need a few more pieces? Like, if you’re the GM, what’s the action step based upon thinking this way?

What scares me is if we had won this game. If we ended up with the ball instead and we were the ones who won on a field goal, I’m 100% sure the narrative in this sub and in the press would be “we hung with one of the best, the Chargers are for real now.” All the criticism of the defense would have been softened and overlooked. And then we’d be in that state again of thinking that we’re good only to see that illusion (and our hearts) shattered in the most dramatic way possible (see last year’s collapse against the Jags). I honestly see this loss as a blessing in disguise because it forces a reckoning with our fatal flaws.

I’m 99% sure Telesco watched Moneyball and then immediately based his next hire on someone who just goes by stats but instead of hiring the Brad Pitt character he hired the Jonah Hill character and made him head coach.

Lol. Does she have a Twitter? You should send this to her if you haven’t already.

You guys should really read the rest of his bio. He gives himself a lot of credit. “Spanos’ ascension within the organization coincided with one of the most successful eras in franchise history. From 2004-09, the Chargers won 67 regular-season games, good for the third-most in the NFL over that span…. Spanos has helped the Chargers acquire and retain some of the most prolific talent in football over the last 19 seasons, as the team had 34 players make a combined 80 Pro Bowls over that span.”

And if you ever had any doubt where the problem in the organization lies, his bio tells you: “Named Executive Vice President of Football Operations in 2013, one of his first priorities in that role was the hiring of General Manager Tom Telesco. The two have guided the Chargers to three playoff appearances and a pair of postseason victories. In 2018, Spanos helped assemble a squad that tied for the AFC’s best record at 12-4 and reached the divisional round of the playoffs following a wild card victory at Baltimore. In 2021, Spanos and Telesco hired Brandon Staley to be the team’s head coach. Staley has led the Bolts to a 19-15 record and a playoff berth over two seasons bringing an innovative and progressive strategy to the organization. “

I know people have fond memories of Merriman but he was a piece of shit in his personal life.

I’m loving all this Super Bowl season content :)

Aw, thanks for this. I remember being so happy and proud as a 14-year old kid seeing this and it makes me happy to see it again 30 years later today. I generally have a terrible memory but I can picture the moment Dennis Gibson batted down that pass clear as day. Before that moment I don’t think there was anything that made me involuntarily leap and scream before; it was like I was possessed. For better or worse, that season was when I first started watching football and when I first became a Chargers fan.

This also makes me nostalgic for that time. Just look at that front page. Take the time to zoom in and read that column by Tom Cushman on the right. Read the headline at the bottom about 68,000 fans gathering just to welcome the Chargers home. This is ostensibly a news organization but look how unabashedly proud the local paper was. It’s a reflection of how the city, already the 6th largest in the U.S., still felt like a small town, so proud that it had made it onto the national stage. Part of being proud of the Chargers back then was being proud of San Diego.

The origin of the word nostalgia is Greek, meaning the suffering evoked by returning home. And I do still lament that the Chargers are no longer in San Diego. I’m doubtful the LA Times would make a front page like this, that LA would come together to celebrate like we did then. And of course, these days, we experience another sort of pain, that of being a perennially disappointing team. My wife doesn’t understand why I’m still a fan of the Chargers, despite all that has happened, and my only explanation is that the mixture of pride and happiness I felt during that 1994 season is something I’ve never been able to let go.