Everyone is laughing at the San Diego Chargers

I’m going to excerpt a few quotes from it, but do yourself a favor and go read Mike Freeman’s article “NFL General Managers Laughing at Chargers for Ruining Joey Bosa’s Rookie Season.” While we mentioned earlier this week how rare it is for an NFL team to negotiate a rookie contract through the media, it’s equally rare to see so many high ranking executives lining up to heap scorn and mockery on another NFL team, but that’s where we are now at with this Bosa situation.

As a Chargers fan, I was already upset that the team I have dedicated so much time and energy to following and supporting was making decisions to hurt the on-field product. But the fact that they’ve become such a laughingstock across the entire country isn’t particularly pleasant either.

Some people will still line up to defend the Spanos family because they see it as their duty as loyal Chargers supporters. I contend that as a supporter of the team, you should demand more support from ownership instead of defending their self-defeating decisions.

One General Manager speaking to Mike Freeman had this to say:

"If Joey Bosa ended his dispute tomorrow," said one NFC general manager, "he would barely get something from his rookie year. But it won't end tomorrow. It could be weeks. So effectively, the Chargers threw away the rookie year of their own high draft pick."

And Freeman summed up what people around the NFL told him thusly:

In speaking to people around the NFL, I've rarely seen such a unanimity on two fronts: 1) Bosa's rookie year is over, and 2) the Chargers are screwing this up.

I cannot stress this enough. Every team I speak to thinks the Chargers are ruining Bosa. They are laughing at the Chargers. Laughing at them.

"This is very Chargers," said one general manager.

This is very Chargers. Jeff Siniard reminded us nearly two weeks ago that this was part of a pattern that has gone on for decades. Some people suggested that he was being unfair or biased, but as others have pointed out, reality is biased against the Spanos family. Everyone else in the league is laughing at the team we support. Maybe it’s time to start asking for more from the organization you have given so much of your time and money.

And one more thing from Freeman for those still convinced that Joey Bosa is being unreasonable:

The Chargers are being more arbitrary. They are pulling numbers and contract structures out of their ass. This is illogical. Makes zero sense.

Why would Bosa accept this? It's not just unfair, or self-destructive, it's borderline immoral.

The Chargers have not offered a fair deal that Bosa’s camp has rejected because he’s some sort of prima donna or because his agent has never negotiated a top five deal before. The team is trying to rip him off and you should be upset by that because it’s hurting the football team.