INGLEWOOD, Calif.-For a man who gets cheered at work all the time, Philip Rivers seemed genuinely surprised by the frenzied roars when he stepped onto the Forum floor.
Melvin Gordon and Joey Bosa shared their quarterback's shock and gratitude when hundreds of screaming fans welcomed the Los Angeles Chargers to their new home on Wednesday.
"All I heard the last couple of days was how nobody wanted us up here," Rivers said. "But shoot, based on what I've seen, it looks like we're going to be all right."
The Chargers formally celebrated their relocation from San Diego in a ceremony attended by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, owner Dean Spanos, new coach Anthony Lynn and several players.
Even Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff showed up to herald the unlikely partnership between two long-absent franchises reuniting in Los Angeles after the two-decade poker game to return the nation's most popular sport to its second-largest city.
The Chargers will pay $1 a year to share Rams owner Stan Kroenke's $2.6 billion stadium next door at Hollywood Park, starting in 2019.
The bold speeches, confetti cannon and roaring crowd created a proper sporting spectacle, but everybody acknowledged the years of hard work ahead to make this move successful.
The wounds of relocation won't heal quickly for the Chargers' employees and players, who will hold their offseason workouts in Chargers Park, their longtime San Diego training complex.
When Spanos stepped to the podium to give brief remarks, he was loudly heckled by San Diego fan Joseph Macrae, who's known for his provocative anti-Spanos signs in the Qualcomm Stadium crowd. The Inglewood fans drowned out his taunts with chants of "LA Chargers!"
"I haven't seen any of this support on social media-no, that's a lie," Bosa said with a grin. "There's definitely (support) out there, but it was drowned out by the boos. So this is a really nice surprise, to see all the love and support."