Los Angeles's second NFL team grapples with popularity. Does their trajectory mirror the perpetually overshadowed New York Jets?
Full warning, this post isn't going to have a lot of football talk in it. If you're here for that, I'll be back with more tomorrow.
I was thinking this morning about where the Chargers rank in terms of importance (or popularity) in the city of Los Angeles.
Certainly they're below the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Dodgers. I imagine they're also below the Los Angeles Rams (who are on their second go-around in L.A. and have won a Super Bowl for the city since moving there) and maybe even the Los Angeles Kings (who won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014).
I think there's a pretty good chance the Chargers, who really only started playing in Los Angeles proper in 2020, trail behind the Clippers (who also moved to L.A. from San Diego) but probably remain ahead of both MLS franchises (LA Galaxy and LAFC).
As a San Diego native, I still remember when the Chargers made the decision (along with the Rams) to move to Los Angeles and become tenants of SoFi Stadium. I also remember a lot of people saying that the Chargers would just turn out to be L.A.'s version of the Jets, who are forever stuck playing second fiddle in their home stadium.
The Jets are in a similar situation to the Chargers in terms of fighting for oxygen in their home market. They're clearly less popular than the New York Giants, New York Yankees, New York Mets and New York Knicks. I could make an argument that they're possibly behind the New York Rangers, as well.
Whether that particular situation, being seen as "the other NFL team" and forfeiting primary rights in their home stadium, has led to the Jets' particular brand of failure (they have won their division twice in the last 56 seasons) is probably up for debate.
They've landed some big names in the past, including Bill Parcells and Rex Ryan, to run the team but neither have been able to deliver much in the way of postseason success. The Jets brand is probably joked about more than it is taken seriously.
And now Jim Harbaugh's brother, John Harbaugh, has taken over the New York Giants (3 Super Bowl appearances, 2 Super Bowl wins since 2000) in an attempt to put them back in the conversation of contention. Would he have taken that same job with the Jets? I do not know.
The Chargers actually have been to a Super Bowl more recently than the Jets, a game they lost by 23 points. They've also had 7 different head coaches over the last 25 years (not counting interims) and have reached a point in the social consciousness where they're expected to fail in big moments.
I am very aware that Bill Parcells, who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his coaching resume, finished his tenure as the Jets head coach with a 29-19 regular season record and a 1-1 postseason record. Jim Harbaugh has been better than that in the regular season, but worse in the playoffs, since taking over as head coach of the L.A. Chargers.
The Chargers are going to be in Los Angeles for a long time (I'm assuming), so they'll have time to turn this thing around. However, as we saw with the Clippers and can currently see with the Jets, sometimes it is hard (and time-consuming) to wash off the "loser" stench if the local market turns on you.
It would benefit the business side of things if the Chargers could challenge those criticisms sooner rather than later on the field.