Its not like we enjoy losing, but if seeing the big picture means we have a "losers mentality" then that is perfectly fine with me. I hope you are holding this win close to your heart as we are watching the Steelers in the playoffs, and as Luke Joeckel (the best OT in this draft) has his name called while the Arizona Cardinals are on the clock.
Let's be honest; winning the first regular season game EVER in Pittsburgh is a BIG feather in the cap. Let's not pretend otherwise - some good & great Chargers teams with fantastic talent all over were unable to beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh. It's worthy of sincere congratulations and respect. It doesn't change the fact it only took Norv until early December to open the playbook and be bleepin creative as well as prepare a good game plan AND make adjustments at half time. Congrats, you finally did your job Norv
A win is good anytime, to hell with draft choices they may or may not work out due to many reasons and nothing beats winning!!!!!
With what? Monopoly money? Jake Long, Ryan Clady, Brandon Albert are all likely to get 10+ mil a year, and we are still paying Gaither and Clary regardless of if we release them.
So the Chargers should let some wet behind the ears rookie to protect Rivers blindside? Good luck with that.
Yes. Rookie LTs enter the league every year. If the rookie is the best then YES he should cover the blind side. How is this wrong?
Dude, that is a BIG "if". The guy mati is pushing is quite good. But good enough to start and protect Rivers or any QB?
If it is the best you have what other option do you have? You go with the best you have in your locker room. What is in other peoples locker rooms is imaterial.
Its not like its MY CHOICE?!? But for those of us who actually have a decent understanding of the state of the franchise its the only realistic option. We are not in a position to go out and steal Jake Long or Ryan Clady. If you want a veteran LT you better bury your head in the sand and pray Jared Gaither stays healthy...a hell of a huge bet.
Very true, the hit rate on top 10 OTs is impressive in recent years. Clady, Long, Thomas, Smith, Okung, Davis, Monroe, Ferguson etc... Jason Smith, Andre Smith, and Levi Brown are the only 3 busts I can think of in the last 7 years or so.
8-8 is an uphill battle at this point and while it's not a winning season, it sure as hell ain't a LOSING season.
This By the way, in looking at the standings and schedules it is not completely ridiculous (yet) to say the Chargers have no shot to get into the playoffs: PIT (7-6): @DAL, CIN, CLE CIN (7-6): @PHI, @PIT, BAL NYJ (6-7): @TEN, SD, @BUF CLE (5-8): WSH, @DEN, @PIT SD (5-8): CAR, @NYJ, OAK BUF and MIA are also at 5-8 but have tiebreaker problems (plus a head to head matchup yet to play). I get that a lot has to happen, but I believe a 4 or 5-way tie at 8-8 falls to us, as I think intradivisional ties have to be broken first. In this case, CIN and CLE would be eliminated first by an intradivisional tiebreaker with PIT and we would then have remaining tiebreakers over both NYJ and PIT were the Chargers to win out.
One of the best lines of all time. That said its not like Ike doesn't have a legitimate concern after what happened last year. Had we just lost to the Raiders, Bills or Jaguars Norv would not be here today, and possibly AJ too. All we've done is put off the inevitable for 1 more season, in other words completely waste 2012, and push 2013 into a transition year. The best we can hope for is JR3 is the right GM, that he has more sense than AJ when it comes to hiring our new HC, and that we have the best resources possible to help Philip Rivers stay alive next year....which will not include money to spend.
Lets not forget, that it all comes back to Dean Spanos. He's the one who waited until the 11th hour to fire Marty, after all the best HC prospects had already been hired. The guy is a terrible owner, plain and simple. He may give money back to the community, but he's got no guts, and no smarts for football.
You might want to reread the analysis. I already know about Indy, as such I did not include them in the breakdown as I presume they will get in. As for CIN, it is true they have a tiebreaker over us, but they have tiebreaker problems of their own with PIT that outweigh the advantage they have on SD. http://www.nfl.com/standings/tiebreakingprocedures In a multi-way tie between SD, PIT and CIN, CIN would get eliminated first since they are in the same division with PIT -- intradivision ties get broken first when determining wild cards in a three or more team tie -- CIN has the weakest division record in the AFC North at 1-3 while PIT is 2-2 with CLE and CIN left and PIT has already beaten CIN once. It then falls to the remaining teams in the scenario, where SD has tiebreakers on PIT (and would also have them on NYJ assuming SD wins out). In short, root for a log jam at 8-8.
I highly doubt Norv is here next year even if we win out. The only circumstance I see keeping Norv here is if the planets align and we slip into the playoffs at 8-8 and then somehow win (or at least make) the Super Bowl. But yeah As for draft position, I get it, but the draft is a crapshoot from top to bottom anyway. You'll never find me hoping the Chargers lose just so they can have a little better shot at taking a shot at an unknown. Look at Melvin Ingram. He was supposed to have been the "steal" of this draft but what's he been doing? (Not calling him a bust yet, of course)
I'm not a big Spanos supporter, but it's not really his fault AJ and Marty decided to wait until the 11th hour to escalate their feud to the point where something had to be done.
If it's a crapshoot from top to bottom anyway, would you advocate the team trading back with all of our picks to acquire as many 6th and 7th round selections as possible? If there's no advantage inherent in the selection order, wouldn't we then benefit most by having the most selections?
Reductio Ad Absurdum almost never makes a valid argument. We're not talking about the difference between a top 10 pick and 6th and 7th rounders here. We're talking about the difference between the top 10 and roughly 15-18
Really? I couldn't disagree more. A real leader, would've brought both men to his office and straightened out their childish feud ages ago. A real leader would never have tolerated his two top exes not speaking to one another. That is a totally dysfunctional situation that an owner with any sense would never have allowed to continue. Dean Spanos is a man who avoids confrontation. Even now, he'd prefer to keep AJ, but he's bowing to the public's outcry for change. Dean inherited his job, he didn't earn it, and he shows no talent for running a football organization. All the Chargers problems begin with his weak leadership.
No, we're talking about the difference between a top 5 and the 20th pick. If your assertion is that there's no difference between selections 8 spots apart, but there is one between spots 200 picks apart, where does the difference come in for you? If you think the differences between Pick A and Pick B are arbitrary, why don't you think that 60 choices would be better than 7?
I didn't say there wasn't a difference. I said the difference isn't so great that I'm going to sit here and hope my favorite team loses and act disappointed if they don't. But if they do I won't be upset about it as much as I normally am. If the difference between 8-8 and 4-12 was a top 5 pick or not picking until the 6th round then, yeah, I'd likely want them to lose. But that is not the case. The real difference isn't great enough to warrant that kind of hope (nor should it be. Teams should always want to win)
I don't fully disagree with your response here, but the bolded parts....he didn't tolerate it and he didn't allow it to continue. He just took a different action to prevent it than you (or I) would have.
