“Dishonest as the Day is Long”.

 
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I thought of Dean Spanos yesterday as I waited for the PGA golfers to tee off at Torrey Pines. Thought about the beauty of San Diego, this golf course, the game of golf.

Somehow in the middle of all that, the owner of the Chargers came to mind, and because he loved golf, for some reason or another, it popped into my mind the story of him getting thrown out of Pro Ams for cheating.

And then came the Email shortly thereafter back in the Media Center, that Spanos had entered into an agreement to buy a 5-ace tract of land in Santa Ana, to build training camp fields and a practice facility, “if they decide to relocate to LA”.

Of course they are still in ‘weighing all the options mode’ over at the Fortress, telling San Diego to be patient, while all the time continuing to negotiate to find the best deal possible for their family, their football family, for the Chargers, San Diego fans, citizens, civic leaders be damned.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer, whom I cornered for a 1-on-1 series of questions, answered me bluntly, no the Chargers have never returned any of his five phone calls since the one five minute conversation he had with Spanos right after the Houston vote that killed the Carson project. So much for Spanos following up on all those statements in the past year about wanting to be in San Diego.

And when you hear that ‘being in San Diego comment’ echo again, remember these are the people who threw hand grenades at the Mayor and the CSAG committee in all the different works putting together the Mission Valley project. And these were the people who hired the spokesman, Mark Fabiani, who said the team was ‘agnostic’ about where to build the stadium, intimating they had no strong choice, while now they talk about a downtown initiative.

And yes they authored 9-different sets of ideas about a new stadium, in different locations, freshly printed sales slicks, without ever attaching how it would be financed.

Staying in San Diego included buying land options in Carson, doing a deal with their decades long enemies the Raiders, sabotage the Rams package in Inglewood, trying to sink the Mission Valley plan and refusing to come to the table for word one of possible economic talks.

They continue to try and play the leverage game too, thinking the LA carrot will make this mayor change his mind about financing. Faulconer told me directly the 350,000 city-county loan won’t be reworked, and he will not bypass any public vote on the financing even if it is a deal breaker, because it is the proper thing to do politically.

Everytime something comes out of the Chargers office, it is couched in deceit, full of private agendas, and obviously laced with lies.

Now, even as they say ‘thinking about their future’, is the late night report the NFL has urged them to accept by this weekend a ‘tenant’ deal with Stan Kroenke in LA, because Spanos does not have the money to become equity partners.  So much playing with the big boys.

That’s who they are, and who the leader is. The owner of the Chargers, once known to cheat in golf too. A good day at Torrey Pines ruined by the latest chapter, song-verse and press release from the Chargers ownership.

Dishonest as the day is long.

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