This season's version of "Charger Fever"...an affliction that has been spreading around this town o' mine for the past few weeks...came to an abrupt (and, frankly, unexpected) end tonight as the underdog New York Jets squeaked out an overtime win over the hometown "Bolts" tonight.
Hardcore Charger fans are like hardcore fans everywhere...they stick with the team through thick and thin...this is something I admire (being a loyal Raiders fan of some 29 years standing...my loyalty to the bad boys from Oakland preceding my settling here in "America's finest city", home of one the Raiders' many "arch-rival" teams, by some 7 years...I know that suffering through many bad seasons for a handful of glorious one is part and parcel of the true believer's lot in life.)
"Charger Fever" fans are like fair-weather fans everywhere...they buy jerseys and scream like drunken banshees whenever the team is winning and they slip back into the shadows when they're not. Everybody loves a winner...I get that...but being a fan of a 12-4 team has more resonance when you were a staunch supporter of that same team when it was 4-12 (a much harder...but much richer...experience.) Your mileage may vary.
Anyway, Charger fans (like Seattle Seahawk fans)...casual and hardcore alike...now have to put those Super Bowl dreams back on the shelf...at least until next summer when the team, hope springing ever eternal, can start the climb toward the big game once again.
*****
On a related note, the sports pundits have...thus far...been proven to be totally wrong. Hometown teams were supposed to rule this weekend but both hometown teams that played today went down to defeat (though both did so in games that, while they started out slowly and sloppily, turned fairly entertaining by their respective ends.) Hope nobody out there bet money on the outcomes based on the opinions of a majority of the folks on ESPN...
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