For all the talk around Jim Harbaugh changing the Chargering culture of the Los Angeles Chargers, a bigger topic has troubled all of LA sports for decades; the culture of Southern Californian fandom.
Many factors go into the seeming fairweather nature of fandom in the area; traffic, the percentage of transplants, and the amount of other attractions and distractions. But since the Chargers and Los Angeles Rams moved into SoFi stadium, the away team takeover has been a very real problem.
Can Jim Harbaugh Change LA’s Sad Pro Football Culture?
But as the ultimate culture changer, Harbaugh is attempting and apparently correcting this problem. They call it home-field advantage for (many) reasons and Harbaugh wants every advantage he can get.
According to Elliot Teaford, Harbaugh wanted it loud and the fans delivered. Left tackle Rashawn Slater said it was the best home crowd of his three-and-a-half-year career, which spans the life of the stadium. He reckoned it was also the loudest. As the Chargers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 34-27 the home team players were energized by the loud cheers, which included chants of “Let’s go Chargers!” and “M-V-P!” for quarterback Justin Herbert, per Thuc Nhi Nguyen and Anthony De Leon.
Both the Rams and the Chargers have been actively attempting to compel the 24 million southern Californians to hop on their respective bandwagons, yet the home-field disadvantage has prevailed over the last nine seasons. Most say winning is the way into the hearts of LA fans, but it hasn’t moved the needle for the Rams, who won a Super Bowl and made the playoffs five of the last eight seasons.
If Harbaugh can pull it off it will be the biggest culture change of his amazing team turnarounds.
They won’t have to wait long to see if the Chargers fan base can follow up with another great showing in prime time, as the Chargers take on the Baltimore Ravens at SoFi on Monday Night Football.
Harbaugh has already issued a public challenge to fans of his team, “This week was better than the last week and hopefully next week will be even better,” the coach said. “We just want to put the kind of football out there that people get excited about.”
