Nico Siragusa, a football player headed to the NFL, was born in San Diego, attended high school in Chula Vista and spent the past five years at San Diego State.

So if Nico opines on San Diego sports, no yellow flags fly for illegal participation.

Opine Nico did this week, via the electric Twitter device.

What got the 22-year-old to typing was the ire that local fans directed at his SDSU football teammate Donnel Pumphrey for wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers cap to an Aztecs hoops game.


Offensive linemen are Pavlovian. When a teammate is attacked, they will snap.

Naturally, Siragusa snarled on behalf of the record-setting ball-carrier he blocked for the past few years.

Doing so, Nico did a pancake block.

His Tweet to Pumphrey:


Bro you already know San Diego sports fans are worst fans in sports no loyalty.... I can’t wait till you go to a city with loyal fans

Fifteen yards for unnecessary roughness.

Toss in another five for a false start, considering that Pumphrey’s critics could be judged guilty of excessive...loyalty.

Nico didn’t exactly walk back the comment.


In reply, he Tweeted: Please as a kid from San Diego I have seen this my whole life... when a sd team is up everyone loves them when a sd team is down no support

My first reaction: One hopes the Chargers draft Siragusa, a forceful guard who’s 6-foot-4 ½, 326 pounds and may go as soon as the draft’s second round.

A Tweet-off between Nico and Joey Bosa’s mom could keep things interesting. (I think Bosa’s mom would wipe him out, but handicapping Tweetstorms isn’t my bag.)

Also, if his football career fizzles, Nico could land a gig in the Spanos administration, which has an appreciation for tone-deaf treatment of supporters.


Second reaction: Giving guff to San Diego sports fans other than the louts would violate the Geneva Convention on Sports Ethics, if there were such a thing.

More on San Diego fans in a moment.

Let me go purple here. Football gets in the blood in part because of loyalty among teammates. Footballers are brave for each other. They sacrifice for each other. Heck, they even endanger their brains for each other.

Loyalty, then, resonates with them.


Fans aren’t teammates. To fans, athletes are entertainers.

So, of course fans are fickle.

If San Diego fans weren’t more fickle than fans elsewhere, logic circuits would explode.

Nico, your hometown teams have been to their sports fans what SDSU’s fearsome ground game would be to your other alma mater, Mater Dei High, if the two squared off on the football field.


Old Guy talking here, Nico.

San Diego State football, before Rocky Long joined Brady Hoke’s staff, put a lot of folks to sleep.

SDSU turned out many entertaining players, dozens of whom reached the NFL, but SDSU has also dealt out a lot of heartache.

Let’s talk business since you’re NFL-bound. SDSU football also has been known to gush geysers of red ink that in effect was sopped up by California taxpayers. (Most other Cal State schools don’t bother with “big time” football because it’s cost prohibitive for them.)


San Diego basketball? Until Steve Fisher arrived, it flat-lined in most years.

The Chargers provided San Diego many thrills. Their departure stings, which may be why folks here are too touchy about LA logos.

Well before you were born, Nico, the Bolts mastered the Bruce Lee martial-arts trick of heart removal.

Only the heart belonged not to their opponents but their own fans. (Google “Vernon Perry,” Nico, just to get a glimpse of the horror.)


Bottom line, the Bolts were 0-for-51 in the quest to win a Super Bowl.

The Padres, meantime, are 0-for-48 in their nominal hunt for a World Series trophy.

Nico, you were kindergarten age 18 years ago when San Diegans committed over $300 million in public money to build the Padres a ballpark, not too long after San Diego elected officials had agreed to spend tens of millions of dollars on Chargers tickets if the team failed to sell them.

Some folks might deem those actions loyal to a fault.


Voters figured the Padres would’ve won a playoff series since then, or a playoff game on San Diego soil.

Hasn’t happened.

As you may know — actually, it would be sad if you did -- eight of the past nine Padres teams were belly up by the All-Star break or far sooner.

Padres loyalists (rhymes with suckers) who attended the games sat next to thousands of fans wearing “LA” and “SF” caps. Fans of those well-heeled teams could count on playoff races that mattered.


Put another way, Nico, if your NFL team treats you as San Diego sports teams have treated fans and taxpayers here, I only hope that you are eligible for free agency. Then, you’d find a team that treated you better.

Good luck in the months ahead. Just a hunch, but I think San Diego will be rooting for you, bro.

(Elsewhere: San Diego, the NFL’s new stalking horse.)


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Tom.Krasovic@SDUnionTribune.com; Twitter: SDUTKrasovic