How's your week going, San Diego Chargers? Are you ready for some football? You better be. I know the New York Jets are. And now suddenly the Oakland Raiders are too.

Norv Turners team, the roster, and the season, are right there on the firing line, when you take the field on Sunday morning in the Meadowlands in New Jersey against the New York Jets. At stake is not just the 6th game of your season, but a whole lot more.

Mouthy Rex Ryan, the always opinionated Jets head coach, told a conference call of reporters, if he had been chosen coach of the Chargers after his 2007 interview with San Diego, he'd have already been to a few Super Bowls with the Bolts. This was calculated, and sure, it was meant to sting. Of course, there was a shred of truth in it. This San Diego leadership has won one playoff game in three years with a future Hall of Famer quarterback.

Norv's job is tough enough. Now, not only are Charger fans sniping at their own coach, the fat guy on the other sidelines is saying something inflammatory. Never mind that Wonder Boy Rex has yet to lead the Jets to a Super Bowl, though his last two seasons have been pretty impressive, taking a once-moribund franchise deep into the playoffs. And like a Pepto-Bismol moment, it was Rex and his Jet-set that knocked the Chargers out of the playoffs, here in San Diego, right after the 2009 season.

While the coach was speaking out in New York, his veteran running back was sitting silent, but I bet still stewing. LaDainian Tomlinson, like so many other ex-Chargers, did not have a nice farewell here when he was cut loose. They never held a press conference. That relationship became contaminated the minute he was dispatched.

Think Tomlinson doesn't remember some of the things his teammates said? Star quarterback Philip Rivers saying that "...we could do a bunch of things on offense now and not have to care what someone else thinks." Ouch. The normally placid Antonio Gates' insinuation that "...some people thought they were bigger than the franchise." Double ouch. Tomlinson himself saying "I felt like an outsider in my own lockeroom at the end." So I am sure somewhere in his heart, on his mind, LT would like to repay a few debts.

Of course, it is all rhetoric and it won't mean much when San Diego kicks off Sunday morning. It will mean much when Philip Rivers steps up and starts throwing passes to receivers covered by ex-Bolt Antonio Cromartie, who left here like a coward, chased off by his lack-of-courage tackles and by all those paternity suits.

As if the Chargers/Jets week wasn't enough, San Diego also has to deal with "the trade," the deal that brought the Oakland Raiders veteran quarterback Carson Palmer, rescued from his imprisonment with the Cincinnati Bengals.

History will show the modern day dislike of Rex Ryan is only surpassed by the historical hate San Diego has for anything related to the Raiders. And now Palmer, the Del Mar resident, goes from no-longer nice guy playing at USC-Cincy, to bitter enemy wearing those silver and black colors.

The Raiders beat the Chargers twice last year, beat the daylights out of them physically and on the scoreboard. And now Oakland has what they have probably have not had for a decade; a quarterback making key throws, who can go deep, is accurate, tough and intelligent. The era of Rich Gannon and Jeff Hostettler was a long time ago. Palmer just made a tough Raiders team, even tougher.

The Chargers won't talk about Palmer and Oakland yet, for they really have to concentrate on the Jets flyover game on Sunday. Norv has enough to think about. He is (4-13) against good teams on the Eastern Seaboard or in the deep south on these roadtrips. The Jets will be followed by games against the Super Bowl ring wearing Green Bay Packers, and the Ray Lewis rage-defense that is the Baltimore Ravens. And of course there is a trip to Arrowhead, and a game in Detroit, and those two matchups with the Raiders and their new mad-bomber quarterback.

The Raiders just changed the AFC West landscape with the Carson Palmer trade. Hope the Bolts are ready for some football. I know San Diego fans are, and the Jets and the Raiders surely are.This week, and every week going forward, will find out if the San Diego Chargers are the real deal.