
There’ll be no Brandon Stokley or Ian Gold tonight, but Daniel Graham is among the Broncos’ 45 active players.
Graham, who was listed as questionable, was seen testing out his sprained ankle about three hours before kickoff and will be in uniform just 11 days after suffering the high-ankle sprain at Houston on Dec. 13.
Joining Stokley and Gold on the sidelines will be wide receiver Taylor Jacobs, fullback Mike Bell, guard Isaac Snell and defensive ends Larry Birdine and Paul Carrington. Darrell Hackney is inactive, but in uniform as the No. 3 quarterback.
Matt Prater will make his Denver debut, as will safety Roderick Rogers, who was called up from the practice squad last week.
For San Diego, the following players are inactive: Charlie Whitehurst (third QB), Paul Oliver, Lorenzo Neal, Anthony Waters, Roman Oben, Jamal Williams, Malcolm Floyd and Scott Chandler.
Off to to the field, but before I go, some odd press-box sights from the open-air setup here at Qualcomm Stadium …
There’s a guy in a Santa Claus suit eating dinner in the row behind me. Mercifully — and for the sake of decorum and hygiene — he removed his beard before consuming his victuals. He looks about like Seinfeld‘s Kramer as Santa Claus — quite trim and a tad unkempt, in no way looking the part. If he was sprouting anti-capitalist propaganda and explaining the absence of delicatessens under Communist rule, he’d perfectly mimic Kramer.
… There’s a baby-changing station in the men’s room here in the press box. I reckon that legally such setups have to be in place at all lavoratorical facilities in municpally-funded stadiums, but the next infant I see carried through a press box will be the first.