Melvin Gordon, Forrest Lamp Rip Use of Steelers Anthem During Chargers Home Game

The Los Angeles Chargers attempted to play a little prank on Pittsburgh Steelers fans in attendance of Sunday's game between the teams at Dignity Health Sports Park by playing the song "Renegade" by Styx, the unofficial anthem of the Steelers. 

The joke was that the PA system quickly transitioned to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," an effort by the Chargers to "Rick-roll" the visiting Steelers fans. But instead, the joke was on the Chargers when the Pittsburgh fans in attendance only got more fired up by the few seconds of the song being played. The fans were already rowdy with the Steelers leading 24-10 at the time.

And the attempted prank did not go over well with the Chargers players, who clearly weren't in on the joke.

"It was crazy," running back Melvin Gordon said, per Jeff Miller of the Los Angeles Times. "They started playing their theme music. I don't know what we were doing—that little soundtrack, what they do on their home games. I don't know why we played that. I don't know what that was. Don't do that at our own stadium ... It already felt like it was their stadium ... I don't understand that."

Offensive lineman Forrest Lamp agreed.

"We're used to not having any fans here. It does suck, though, when they're playing their music in the fourth quarter," he said. "We're the ones at home. I don't know who's in charge of that but they probably should be fired."

It's safe to say that the city of Los Angeles hasn't exactly embraced the Chargers since they made the move from San Diego before last season. Sunday's game between the Chargers and Steelers wasn't the first time fans of the opposing team made a Chargers home game feel like an away game.

And on Sunday there were quite a few Terrible Towels waving in Los Angeles:

"Yeah, it’s frustrating," tight end Hunter Henry said of consistently playing in front of opposing fans at home. "It's pretty loud in there, but we know that kind of going in. We have guys that are used to it. We'll just keep going at it."

The bigger frustration for the Chargers on the night was losing 24-17, dropping to 2-4 on the season. For a Chargers team with playoff expectations after going 12-4 last season, that slow start has been unexpected and disappointing. 

Things won't get much easier before the team's Week 12 bye, either, with the Tennessee Titans (2-4), Chicago Bears (3-2), Green Bay Packers (4-1), Oakland Raiders (3-2) and Kansas City Chiefs (4-2) on tap. How the team fares in those five games will potentially define its entire season. 

Three of those contests come on the road, though given the home attendance this season, all five of them will essentially be away games. The people running the Chargers PA system might want to keep that in mind.