When editorial writer John Soule of the Terre Haute (Ind.) Express beckoned citizens 157 years ago to "Go west, young man," he might as well have added, "And don't come back, because it could get ugly."
Just ask the four West Coast teams in the National Football League.
The San Diego Chargers , Seattle Seahawks, Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers have visited teams in the Eastern time zone a combined 11 times this season.
Record: Zero-for-2008.
And if you throw the Arizona Cardinals into the mix, it's 0-14.
"It's always been a tricky thing," said Washington Redskins vice president of Football operations Vinny Cerrato, who spent nine years with the 49ers. "Let's face it: If you're a West Coast team and you're playing a 1 o'clock game on the East Coast, it's really 10 a.m. That can be tough."
Former New York Giants coach Jim Fassel, previously an assistant in Oakland and Arizona, agrees.
"If you go from the West Coast to the East Coast, you're losing a lot of time," he says of the three-hour time differential. "And if you try to squeeze in your normal (home-base) Friday activity, the players are worn out once they finally get to the East Coast.
It's important to note that the West Coast Four haven't been real spiffy in any time zone this year. San Diego is 4-6 overall, Seattle 2-8, Oakland 2-8 and San Francisco 3-7. "If you have a good team like we did in San Francisco, it's not hard to make up for (the time difference)," Cerrato says.
Adds Fassel: "When you look at the western teams, you're not really talking about good teams. That's the bottom line, right there."
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