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“CHARGERS LEADER SPEAKS OUT”
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John Spanos, the President of Football Operations, still has his job, thanks to his Dad-Dean Spanos.

He also has quite a resume, 2-playoff wins in 11-years on the job, firing his last 3-head coaching hires.

He ended a nearly 2-year boycott of media, refusing to meet nor answer any questions from the LA and the San Diego media, about the teams he put together.

On Friday he was part of the decision making team that removed GM-Tom Telesco and coach Brandon Staley, in the wake of the horrors of the (63-21) loss to the Raiders, last year’s playoff failure against Jacksonville, and the chronic losing stretch of games.

His Chargers have lost 11-of the last 16-games dating back to last December.
Staley went (24-25).  The prior coach-Anthony Lynn was (33-32).  The first coach he hired, Mike McCoy was (27-37).

There have been hideous losses recently.  Losing the (27-0) playoff lead to the Jaguars was devastating.  Trailing the Raiders (62-7) in the 4th quarter was galling.  McCoy lost to an (0-13) Browns team in his final weeks.  It’s been messy for a long time.

No one could have projected the Chargers would lose all these games (89-95) under his leadership, when their quarterbacks were Philip Rivers and then Justin Herbert.

A quick look at John Spanos QUOTES as he ended his media boycott, and my responses.

EVERYTHING STARTS WITH OWNERSHIP…Truer words never spoken.  They’re the ones that made the coaching hirings and firings.  So what.  The bad decisions made by ownership-there is no accountability for the mis-steps.

WE DIDN’T GET WHERE WE ULTIMATELY WANTED TO…Never have since the 1995 magical trip to the Super Bowl.  It is amazing the continued failures of this team considering the greatness of Philip Rivers and Justin Herbert at the most important position in the game, star quarterbacking.

THE LAST 3-HIRES-THEY WERE GOING TO GET HIRED BY SOMEONE…Yes they were hot coordinators and were on everyrone’s radar.
Mc Coy failed because the game, and all part of being a head coach, was too overwhelming for him.  I thought they were hitting a home run with him.  He struck out.  Lynn was so old school-not up to speed with modern day offense.  Staley was too smart, so complicated, and too defiant-inflexible.  Missed on all 3-of those hires.

I WON’T TALK TO WHY WE MADE THIS DECISION…Telesco’s firing seemed like a scapegoat move.  The team did not respond to Staley’s playbook designs.  But why not be specific.  You’re not going to hurt them further by detailing what went wrong-for you hurt them already by firing them.

THE CHARGERS-A DESIRABLE PLACE TO BE…Yes you have the quarterback in place, but you have problems everywhere.  Upwards of 60M over the salary cap.  Enormous injury history.  High salary cap numbers for at least 6-players-and you cannot keep them all.  You start chopping Mike Williams-Joey Bosa and the like, what kind of roster do you have left?

CAST A WIDE NET IN SEARCH…Tell me something I don’t know, because everyone says the same thing.  The Chargers have to define what freedom they will give an incoming coach.  Will the new coach have input in player personnel decisions?  Will he be a veteran coach set in his ways?  Must he come from the offensive side of the ball?  Will he be a defensive smart-guy to fix the team’s woeful defensive history?  In essence, does a Bill Belichick or Dan Quinn bring qualities better than another hot coordinator like Ben Johnson?  Where do you define experience vs retread, as it relates to Jim Schwartz or Raheem Morris.

WE WILL RE-EVALUATE OUR HIERARCHY…I believe that when I see it.  You going to axe your capologist who gave out the contracts?  You going to remove the training staff after all these injuries over the last 3-years?  You’re not going to axe anyone with the last name Spanos are you?

EXPECTATIONS NOT MET TWO YEARS IN A ROW…Alot longer than that.  That’s convenient to dump it on Telesco-Staley.  This problem goes back lots of years.

So John Spanos ended his media silence for years but really didn’t say anything of value at all.  It was like ‘coach-speak’.

Here’s the question that should have been asked.

YOU HAVE PRESIDED OVER ALL THESE YEARS OF LOSING FOOTBALL.  HOW COME YOU STILL HAVE YOUR JOB, WHILE CO-WORKERS LIKE TOM TELESCO-BRANDON STALEY HAVE BEEN FIRED?

Waiting for that response.

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