As the Chargers prepared to play a division-round playoff against a highly-motivated opponent last Sunday, they spent some of the time they arguably should have been resting up for the game by partying.
In a Mailbag feature for the San Diego Union-Tribune, Kevin Acee acknowledges that "[s]ome players were out” from “Friday night into Saturday morning.”
He agreed that it is “disappointing,” but Acee pointed out that it happened 36 hours before kickoff.
“They’re young, single men,” Acee explained. “Would you love everyone to be Philip Rivers? Absolutely. They’re not.”
It probably wouldn’t have made a difference if they’d stayed in. But the fact that they saw fit to go out two nights before the biggest game of the season speaks to a mindset that makes the loss more understandable in hindsight.