The first coach of the Los Angeles Chargers forgot his football team doesn’t play in San Diego anymore. At his introductory press conference in Los Angeles today, Lynn slipped up and said he was excited to coach the San Diego Chargers.
“Good afternoon,” Lynn began. “Folks, I am pumped. I am so proud to be the head coach of the San Die — um … L.A. Chargers … Oops.”
Crushed it.
It’s not Lynn’s fault that the team moved away from its 55-year home just days before he took the job, but someone should have made sure he wasn’t going to say the words “San Diego” in any way, shape or form. The wound’s still fresh for a lot of folks in the area. Lynn also dropped a not-safe-for TV word on live television when telling a story about Bill Walsh, so maybe he was just hecka nervous.
Press conferences are pretty new for Lynn, who had a meteoric rise in the football world this season. He started the year as the running backs coach of the Buffalo Bills before a promotion to offensive coordinator when Greg Roman was fired two weeks into the year. By New Year’s Day he was the interim coach of the Bills after the organization fired Rex Ryan.
Anthony Lynn had a difficult first news conference as San Die … L.A. Chargers coach: pic.twitter.com/BtcWYHkoCb
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) January 17, 2017
Lynn has a brief but disastrous history with press conferences. He was essentially thrown to the wolves in his first as Bills interim head coach because he was the only person to speak to the media after the team fired Rex Ryan. Lynn obviously wasn’t involved in that—in fact Ryan amazingly was allowed to choose Lynn as his successor when he was fired—but was forced to speak on it because general manger Doug Whaley did not talk to the media until after the season.
It also came after the team decided to bench starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor, a move Lynn termed as a “business decision” because the team was afraid Taylor could get injured and guarantee himself a $27.5 million payday. When pressed on the move later in the presser he admitted he “wasn’t in the room when that decision was made,” making many wonder exactly what Lynn had control over other than the podium.
That disaster, however, was the fault of the Buffalo Bills owners and management. This one was all on Lynn. Hopefully he’ll get better as he gets more reps. He is still new to this head coaching thing, you know.
Then again if the Chargers are never actually moved out of San Diego, he isn’t wrong.
