The San Diego Chargers were supposed to have a home game Sunday against the Oakland Raiders.
Instead, more Raiders fans showed up than Chargers fans in an almost embarrassing turn of events, which is what happens when a team flirts with the idea of moving a franchise and only has five wins through 14 weeks.
Reporters noted the almost sad scene before kickoff:
Stadium announcer: "Now taking the field, your San Diego Chargers.
Crowd boos.
And that's it. No individual introductions before home game
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) December 18, 2016
Chargers did not even bother announcing the team's starting lineup with all of the Raiders' fans on hand.
— Eric Williams (@eric_d_williams) December 18, 2016
Michael Gehlken grabbed an image of the sorry scene:
Raiders did in December what Chargers couldn't in November: capture a two-thirds majority in San Diego. pic.twitter.com/YDtta2xUCe
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) December 18, 2016
To make matters even worse (or interesting), the two owners got together at midfield and had what may have been a not-so-nice conversation:
Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Raiders owner Mark Davis had an animated conversation at midfield just now.
— Eric Williams (@eric_d_williams) December 18, 2016
None of this is much of a surprise. The Chargers seem to have a foot out the door and the Raiders are Super Bowl contenders.
The Chargers had actually practiced this week as if they were playing on the road:
The Chargers will host the Raiders on Sunday, but it likely will be a home game in name only. The team practiced this week while blaring artificial crowd noise from its on-field speakers. With a barrage of Raiders fans expected to attend, the offense anticipates needing to use the silent count in spurts.
It’s a sad state of affairs in San Diego, where the Chargers players deserve better, even if the team is going through some difficult times.
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