No love lost between Raiders, Chiefs, Broncos in AFC West but no one cares about the Chargers

Recently fans of every NFL team across the SB Nation Network were asked which team they thought was their team’s biggest rival. The results are revealing.

In most cases across the league, whichever team has had the most recent sustained success is considered the most bitter rival. That means the Patriots in the AFC East, the Steelers in the AFC South, and the Packers in the NFC North to name a few.

And for the AFC West, that’s the Chiefs.

Each of the other AFC West teams voted the Chiefs as their biggest rival. As for the Chiefs themselves, they view the Broncos as their biggest rival.

So, where do the Raiders fit in? In each case, they were the second most hated team by each fanbase.

It’s weird to think the Raiders are no one’s most bitter rival anymore. That’s what 15 years of bad football will do for you. Rivalries usually require the opponent be more competitive and a pendulum swing back and forth of which team is better this year. Outside of that 2016 season, that pendulum has been stuck for a while.

The Chiefs being considered the biggest rival and the bitter hate triangle between them and the Broncos and Raiders has one team on the outside looking in — The Chargers.

Oh, the Chargers. No one cares about the Chargers. Least of all their fans. We had all gotten used to the Raiders playing an extra home game in San Diego, and since the Chargers moved to LA, it’s gotten worse. Now every team that comes for a visit looks like the home team.

In the surveys, they had just 5% of the vote among Raiders fans, 3% from Broncos fans, and the Arrowhead Pride didn’t even see them as important enough to include in the survey. That’s sad. Especially considering the Chargers are actually pretty good this year.

The overall vote percentage totals are Chiefs 165, Raiders 101, Broncos 82, Chargers 8.