Top 10 most dysfunctional teams in the NFL
By Dani Bostick
4. San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers finished the 2015 season with a dismal 4-12 record, finishing last in their division. This performance was a far cry from 2009 which marked the fourth consecutive year they won their division. The Chargers are typically very competitive in their conference, but troubles with personnel and their future in San Diego have added a layer of dysfunction that is hard to ignore.
Wins and losses aren’t the only barometer of dysfunction, however. The team’s future in San Diego is up in the air. When the Rams moved to Los Angeles this off season, the San Diego chargers ended up with a one-year option to share the Rams stadium in L.A.
The team could also stay in San Diego, but it will depend on the success of a stadium initiative on the November ballot. Meanwhile, for the 2016 season, they will still call Qualcomm stadium home, an outdated relic built in 1967.
The situation is so distressing to fans, that there is even a Save Our Boltz music video featuring C-Siccness and Roadeezy.
While fans of the Chargers definitely want to save their Boltz and keep their team in San Diego, it is unlikely voters will be in favor of a new stadium downtown.
San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee wrote in April:
"“This is insane floating on ludicrous lost in a sea of nonsense. The Chargers and Cory Briggs meet. City Attorney Jan Goldsmith basically says Briggs’ Citizens Plan is screwed six ways to Saturday. Briggs says Goldsmith is wrong. Briggs says he has settled with hoteliers and has their endorsement. The hoteliers say they have not settled nor endorsed anything. This all happened in a span of about 24 hours at the beginning of this week. It may well have been the tipping point, as if we weren’t already to that point. Enough. Already. Can someone just have the gumption to say that we need to decide what we’re doing here? I wasn’t in the military. I’ve never run a major corporation or a municipality or even, one tiny woman would argue, worn the pants in a family. But I feel qualified to opine that we need a fricking plan.”"
Things don’t sound very promising.
Meanwhile, the team generated some unfavorable media coverage after they fined Safety Eric Weddle $10,000 and put him on injured reserve. Weddle, who signed with the Baltimore Ravens this offseason, incurred the fine by skipping his team’s halftime meeting to watch his daughter perform a cheerleading routine.
Weddle’s agent impugned the team’s management, saying via ESPN, “If you do bad things to good people, you deserve to have your dirty laundry aired in the limelight. Eric’s done nothing but give nine years to the Chargers organization — his heart, his soul, his body.”
With another year of uncertainty and the loss of several key players to retirement and free agency, it will be hard for the team to keep morale high this upcoming season.
Next: San Francisco 49ers