NFL Dos and Don'ts: San Diego Chargers

As we prepare for another year of NFL football, let's take a look back at the highs and lows from 2014 for each team. Welcome to NFL Dos and Don'ts. If you missed one, you can read all our recaps right here.

Do

If the Raiders are the paragons of losing football in the AFC West, the Chargers are the best example of being preeeeeetty good. That is the best way to describe them, and I bet it's fun as a Chargers fan to know you're always going to be in the mix. Even if you don't make the playoffs, you still probably had a decent year. I'm also sure it gets pretty annoying to always find yourself just outside all the real fun of winning the Super Bowl after spending season after season thinking "this is the year." But, so it goes. Some have it worse, some have it better. The San Diego Chargers are the fence between green grass and greener grass.

They've still had some pretty great players over the years, and say what you will about iridescent weirdo Philip Rivers, more than half the league would kill to have him as their quarterback. But after recently signing a contract extension, it's safe to say Rivers is not going anywhere. LaDainian Tomlinson, Junior Seau, Antonio Gates; these are Hall of Famers and they're all more or less contemporaries. Contemporaries from a while ago, sure, but Antonio Gates is still out there Doing his thing, although part of his thing is now serving a four-game suspension for flunking a PED test.

This catch is crazy. Gates is running full speed down the middle of the field into double coverage, so he knows if he gets near the ball he is going to get popped. He's a big dude, so maybe he doesn't mind too much, but still, it's going to happen. The ball is then deflected at the point when he turns his head and expects the ball to hit him in the hands. Instead, Gates has to readjust. He turns his whole body and manages to look the ball into his hands as he is running backwards, finally securing it for a touchdown. Did you know he played basketball, too?

Don't

This is a pretty serious Don't because the Chargers really fucked this one up. In a late October game against the Broncos, Chargers safety Jahleel Addae had a game he probably doesn't even remember. Addae took a pretty vicious shot trying to tackle Emmanuel Sanders on the first play of the game and clearly looked like he suffered some kind of head injury from the way he just slumped down to the ground on his face.

Addae (37) remained in the game however, which allowed this to happen at the end of the third quarter.

That's Addae stumbling around with his arm stuck in fencing response and almost surely unconscious on his feet. Finally he gave in and his head slumped down into his chest and he just stood there. He was evaluated by medical staff and allowed to finish the game.

There is no way he should have played any more than that first snap of the game. I'm no doctor, but when a guy takes a hit like that and basically faceplants without making any effort to break his fall, something's wrong and he should be done for the game. Even if you are obsessed with winning—which is the only reason players and coaches allow stuff like this to happen—the guy is useless out there without his brain working properly. Even though it was obvious to everyone watching, it was only the next day that the Chargers announced Addae did in fact suffer a concussion. Don't do this to people just so you can try to win a football game.