Charger Blackout Is a Black Mark for TV and NFL

So the Chargers are blacked out again Sunday. That’s a shame, not only for San Diego fans but for folks everywhere who enjoy O. Henry endings. These guys should never be blacked out.

The real injustice, when it comes to the Chargers and television, is that they should ever have to appear on Sunday afternoon. Putting these guys on television at 1 o’clock on any afternoon is like hanging the Mona Lisa in the Abilene library.

You can have America’s Team and Amana’s Team. You can have Super Bore teams like the Golden Gate Foggy-Niners and the Miami Marinos. You can have the Davis Raiders and Georgia Rams.

You want football or you want entertainment? The Chargers are, or should be, Prime-Time Players.

Let the remainder of the National Football League play on Sunday afternoons and even Monday nights. If the networks and Pete Rozelle had any sense, the Chargers would have their own time slot--say 8 p.m. on Wednesday or Thursday.

This football team is kind of a cross between Indiana Jones and Star Wars. It is a high-wire act in cleats. It plays Gunfight at OK Corral football.

A Hollywood producer should walk into a soda fountain and find this football sitting on a stool awaiting discovery. It would have that darkly unpredictable charisma of James Dean.

The thing about the Chargers is that this would be real-life prime-time entertainment, not the created tension of network nitwits. If the Chargers were tied to a chair in a burning house, they wouldn’t always get loose. Or they’d get loose and find the door locked. From the outside.

If the Chargers played Indiana Jones, the cobras--or rampaging boulders--would occasionally get their man. They would not always be the last guys standing at the OK Corral.

That is the charm--and, I suppose, frustration--of these Prime-Time Players.

And that is what makes them so right for a night and a time of their own on network television. Why watch some detective who always solves the crime? Why watch some comedian recycling jokes Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball or Milton Berle used 20 years ago? Why watch some confusing cast of characters trading morality for empires? Tune in, instead, to the Chargers every Wednesday at 8 p.m. and . . .

Get the most spontaneous and dramatic of story lines without even writing a script. No need to design a set, or costume the performers, or wreck cars. Just flip a coin and the show is on.

When these Prime-Time Players are playing, viewers will learn to (a) never get discouraged and turn off the set or (b) don’t even turn it on until near the end.

A perfect example was last Sunday’s game with Pittsburgh, which just happened to be an evening affair.

That one had all the makings of a rout. The Steelers may have entered the game with a distinguished defense, but the Chargers had shredded that dignity and led, 34-17, in the first half.

The uninformed viewer probably switched to 60 Minutes at about that time.

However, anyone even vaguely familiar with the Chargers realized they have their own version of 60 minutes. They may be up (or down) by 17 points and the outcome is still as much in doubt as the original toss of the coin.

Lo and behold, the Prime-Time Players found themselves tied, 34-34, in the third quarter and tied at 41 early in the fourth period. As one of the commentators remarked: “The Chargers are the only team in pro football who can score 41 points and worry about being haunted by a missed extra point.”

Yes, and the Chargers may be the only team in pro football who would decline a penalty and virtually give the opposition a tie-breaking field goal with under seven minutes to play. It is as if they are saying: “Let ‘em have the points and give us the darned ball back.”

Given the ball, the Chargers trailed, 44-41, with 6:37 to play.

Now, about these Prime-Time Players and that three-point deficit. Before that 6:37 had expired, these guys were exercising restraint lest they be accused of running up the score.

How many pro football teams ever have a worry like that? Yes, this one turned out to be a 54-44 Prime-Time Player win. And they were at the Pittsburgh 1 when the game ended.

This one was a bit wild in the final minutes, but not particularly dramatic. The Chargers had this one in hand by the two-minute warning.

Five Charger games have been decided with less than 19 seconds remaining in regulation time, two of those going into overtime.

As in life itself, not all these endings are happy--at least from the Chargers’ point of view. They scored with :04 to play to beat Cincinnati, 44-41, but also lost, 37-35, when Houston scored with :02 to play. There was the 40-34 overtime win over the Raiders, but also that 30-24 overtime loss to Denver.

In that other last-second decision, Minnesota probably figured it scored too early when it took a 21-17 lead with 19 seconds left. No one wants to give the football to the Prime-Time players with that much time to play.

However, on that occasion, the cobra got Indiana Jones and the Black Hats were the last guys standing at the OK Corral. The hero could not get the knots loosened before the house burned.

When the Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles meet Sunday in that blacked-out matinee, remember how exciting radio was in the old days. Tune in about 3:30 and catch all the action.