NFL plays Scrooge to Chargers on Christmas

What is it about the NFL that does not agree with the San Diego Chargers at Christmas time?

OK, so the Chargers didn’t play on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day last year ... because there were not any NFL games on those days.

But go back two years and those were the Chargers hosting the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football on Christmas Eve; which happens to be the holiest day of the year to some people.

Fast forward to this year and you have the Chargers playing at the Tennessee Titans on Christmas Night.

Is this fair to Norv Turner, Philip Rivers, LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates, Luis Castillo, Shaun Phillips, Shawne Merriman, Quentin Jammer and all on Christmas?

No way.

First of all, this is the NFL Network’s "Thursday" game on a Friday. The game certainly could have been played on Saturday ... or the day after Christmas ... just like last Saturday’s Dallas Cowboys at New Orleans Saints game.

In addition, the Chargers are traveling 2,000 miles to play the game; more than any other team has traveled all year for a non-Sunday or -Monday game. And, yes, it is Christmas.
So the Chargers must say thanks to the NFL for once again playing Scrooge with their Christmases.

Prediction:
Titans 23, Chargers 20

Unlike local TV, pro wrestlers are very patriotic

Say what you want about owner Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment.

You can call the group too theatrical, too this or too that.

But there’s another term you can use for McMahon and the WWE: “very patriotic.”

At the beginning of Monday Night Raw, the WWE featured a salute to our troops on Memorial Day.

This beat the heck out of the local TV stations that led their newscasts with the same-old police blotter stuff and threw in Memorial Day remembrances as an afterthought.

Actually, the WWE is gaining quite a reputation for its patriotism.

After all, this was the first organization to hold a major public event in the aftermath of 9/11, staging a show in Houston just two days after the terrorist acts and having McMahon say “We’ll go on with the show; we’re not afraid of terrorists.”

This is also the same WWE that travels to Iraq each year during Christmas time and puts on a show for our troops.

When it comes to being patriotic, our local and national TV shows can sure learn a lot from the WWE.

Chargers shouldn't have to play Christmas Eve Night

Shame on the NFL for planning a game Christmas Eve night in San Diego!

Christmas Eve has replaced Christmas Day as the time many families and churches now get together for the holiday.

Now you have people who have paid upwards of $100 per ticket who must choose on Christmas Eve among family, church or the Chargers-Denver Broncos game at Qualcomm Stadium.

A 1971 Christmas Day playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs went into two overtimes, reputedly causing many family divorces and quarrels in the process.

This year, you have the NFL saying “tough beans” about those having to choose between football and families.

The solution? How about if the Chargers-Broncos game kicked off at 1 p.m. so players, fans, stadium workers, media, etc. could all be home with their families for Christmas Eve night?

Of course, the stupid 5 p.m. kickoff time is all about ESPN the NFL and the “national” television audience.

In reality, how many people on the East Coast are going to watch a game between two teams in the NFL’s worst division with an 8 p.m. eastern kickoff? (They’d be much more likely to watch a game at 4 p.m. eastern time before getting on with their Christmas Eve activities.)

If/when this game has the worst Monday Night Football rating of the season, the NFL and ESPN should look themselves in the face and say “we screwed up.”

How awful to put faithful fans between a rock and a hard place on what has become the most holy night in the religious world!

Prediction:

Chargers 34, Broncos 17