Staley

It’s 11:34am on December 15, 2023, and for some reason Brandon Staley is still employed.

Time for changes. Time for fresh voices. Time for a new head coach and a new general manager.

There is no way around it now — no explanation, no justification, no mental gymnastics. Not after what happened Thursday night at Allegiant Stadium. Not after 63-21. Not after the Los Angeles Chargers capitulated to the fury and fire and will of the Las Vegas Raiders, their fiercest rivals. A 5-8 Raiders team. With a rookie quarterback making his sixth career start. With an interim head coach in his sixth career game in charge.

“We got embarrassed,” said safety Derwin James Jr.

The Chargers could have rented out one of those gargantuan neon signs down The Strip and plastered the words “WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP” on it for 24 hours. That would not have made the point more obviously than this performance. This dreadful, shocking performance.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an NFL team look as bad as the Chargers looked in the first half last night. Hilariously, you could listen to Al Michaels giving up in parallel to the Chargers giving up, if for much different reasons. I can only imagine that Justin Herbert’s agent will make this game the featured presentation in his next contract negotiation. Let’s turn it over to Richard Sherman:

… and there we go.