Chargers Festivus: Airing of Grievances

Today, December 23, is Festivus. For those not familiar, it is the holiday invented by George Costanza’s dad on Seinfeld, and it famously features an airing of grievances. And so we (like so many others today) have decided to air ours.

Richard Wade: I got a lot of problems with the Chargers now you’re going to hear about it. Dean Spanos, your organization is terrible. At this point, anytime something actually goes right, I have to think it was just dumb luck. This past year has not even featured much of that. And when they did get lucky by drafting a generational talent, they tried to screw him over as much as the current CBA would allow.

Now, at 5-9, the only reason I think the Chargers might win against the worst team in the NFL tomorrow is because that’s the worst possible outcome. The entire stadium saga has been one embarrassment after another and each time you think the Spanos family has hit a new low, they surprise you by digging even deeper.

Ruben J. Gonzalez: This Festivus I want to tell the football gods... thanks for another shitty season. You have ravaged the Chargers again with an unspeakable amount of injuries, thrown in a relocation charade for a second straight season, and for some strange reason, you brainwashed management to bring back coach Mike McCoy. We get it. We fans have suffered enough. And quite honestly, I don't know how this 'penitence' is going to work out in the grand scheme of things, but I tell you what football gods, I think we've all had enough of your shenanigans. Give us our team, give us our pride back and go pick on the Raiders again. There.

Jeff Siniard: This Festivus I wish to tell of 10 grievances involving the San Diego Chargers: 1) Retaining Mike McCoy. 2) Retaining Mark Fabiani. 3) Pushing a stadium ballot measure which had no realistic path to success. 4) Retaining Mike McCoy. 5) Not signing the #3 overall draft pick prior to training camp. 6) Leaking news regarding a potential move to LA despite your proclamations of a self-imposed gag order 7) Retaining Mike McCoy. 8) Failing to adequately address the OL issues. 9) Wasting another season of Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates. 10) Retaining Mike McCoy.

Ryan Doyle: This Festivus, I wish to tell the Chargers about the problems I have with this laughable organization. 1) Making Joey Bosa look like the bad guy. You may have fooled some of us, but I'll always know the truth. 2) Signing Travis Benjamin. Bad move. 3) Having Mike McCoy lead this team for another season. 4) Packing your bags for LA. 5) Disappointing loss after disappointing loss. 6) Another season without a playoff game. 7) Ruining every Sunday during the football season. Happy Festivus!

Matthew Stanley: This Festivus I wish to tell of 7 grievances involving the San Diego Chargers: 1)Keeping Mike McCoy as head coach. 2)Keeping the rest of the coaching staff AND training staff. 3)The flat out awful handling of everything stadium-related for the 15th + year in a row. 4)Sticking to a false "precedent" in the Joey Bosa contract situation to the impediment of his young career and the team's performance. 5)Allowing fans to take the blame in any way for poor attendance. You have put together a shit product and continually threaten, yes you use it as a threat, to move. 6)Continuing to value time with the team over actual talent when it comes to FA and the Depth Chart 7)See 1 and 2 again.

Louis Gorini: This Festivus I wish to tell of 4 grievances involving the San Diego Chargers, an organization that is so poorly run that the media and fans often forget that a team even exists in Southern California. If it wasn't for the mishaps of management this team would not be covered at all. 1) The pettiness of Chargers management that delayed Bosa getting onto the field 2) The inability of making second half adjustments by coaches which leads to my next grievance 3) Fourth quarter collapses in so many different ways; the typical Rivers INT, back to back fumbles, missing extra points, defense failing to get a big stop, etc 4) The human anatomy- screw you ACLs, and Achilles! Because the human body was not made to play such a violent sport and the Chargers inept strength and conditioning coaches, San Diego has almost 20 players on IR, for this I say shame!

Cody Young: Ahh Festivus. Few holidays have such a tradition as wonderful as the "airing of grievances". This year I've got a lot of beef with the Chargers, so grab a plate, and I'll begin this jeremiad. The thing that irks me the most is that the Chargers made this season unenjoyable. Yeah, losing seasons are never fun. But in the past, I was at least able to enjoy every game I watched, even when there was nothing to play for. Not so this year.

The Chargers organization sucked the life out of this season, and for the first time ever I've felt emotionally unattached to the team I choose to love. Everything the organization does is frustrating and often times makes no sense. Have an incompetent coach? Bring him back! Get a potential franchise-altering player high in the draft? Screw around with his contract and bad mouth him at the same time! And they can't just leave for L.A. should it come to that. Nope. They're going to try and make it hurt as much as possible. Fans like to feel like the organization they choose to devote time, money, and often times heartache to cares about them just a little bit. The Chargers organization has done a poor job in this regard, in my opinion, anyway. Well, I've said my peace. Enjoy the holidays, everyone! And there's Festivus for the rest of us.

Jamie Sewell: This Festivus I wish to tell of 12 grievances involving the San Diego Chargers. 1) Mike McCoy is still here, 2) The Chargers won't be for long, 3) Offset freaking language, 4) Injuries... again. 5) Travis Benjamin likes contact as much as Spanos likes San Diego, 6) I could build a better OL out of lego without using my hands, 7) Jerry Attaochu doesn't actually exist anymore, 8) Unfortunately it's not Craig Mager who's vanished, 9) What are adjustments? 10) Jahleel Addae just injured my knee for writing this, 11) And now Dwight Lowery joined him just a couple of seconds too late, 12) Mike McCoy is still here. Happy Festivus everyone!

Happy Festivus!