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“CHARGERS IN SAN DIEGO”
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Look who is in town for a day or two?
The Chargers, holding a short two days of workouts at USD.
Snuck into town Monday night with little fanfare. Like they snuck out of town in 2017 late at night moving to Los Angeles.
Things I saw, things I heard from my network of people following the Bolts.
HISTORY…Hard to believe it has been so many years since they moved. There are still Chargers fans, few and far between in San Diego, that have tickets to go see the team. It is surprising there are fans here who blame the city for not keeping the Chargers, when it was the City-County-CSAG group that put the financing together that Dean Spanos refused to come to the table to negotiate with. The NFL-TV ratings used to be 30-shares for Chargers games; now they are 15-to-18 shares in San Diego, and many of that may be ‘hate-watchers’ hoping they lose.
WHY NOW..Not sure I understand taking two days out of early contact drills to move your entire workout camp to USD. They did not promote it at all. Maybe they feared fans showing up with signs to blast ownership after all these years.
WHY USD…You could say homecoming for Jim Harbaugh, who coached at USD, using success in 1AA football as a jumping off point for an illustrious college-NFL coaching career. But the former Bolts-Colts QB did not have any impact on the college football community. As good as USD was in the Josh Johnson-Jim Harbaugh era, no one came to see their games. There was no big time accomplishment in postseason football.
WHY NOT SNAPDRAGON…If the Chargers wanted to use this as a marketing tool to reignite NFL interest here, why not open the workouts to everyone, make it a Fan Festival at SDSU’s Snapdragon Stadium, and open it to everyone. The Bolts say military day on Tuesday, with Wednesday for Season Ticket holders for the LA Chargers. So you limit fans’ entry there. Could have been a unique marketing tool, but that family isn’t smart enough to realize that.
TEAM SPANOS..Doubted Dean Spanos would show up and get booed. Can you say persona-non-grata in his adopted home town. Like I have always maintained, he could have been revered forever in San Diego if he helped build a new stadium to keep the Chargers here. Instead he moved and forever will be reviled. Oh by he way, despite the hopes for the franchise because of the head coach and the quarterback, the Spanos’ have had 15-winning seasons in 43-years of ownership. As I also say, the ‘Scoreboard’ does not lie.
SONS OF SPANOS…This let’s hold workouts in San Diego probably came out of the office of AG Spanos (thanks dad for the job), who is President of Business Operations. He was also the architect of the new Gold on Gold and Blue on Blue uniforms they will wear sometime this season. Of course social media is ablaze asking questions is it really gold, or mustard, or banana yellow jerseys? AG was the one who created the first LA-Charger Bolt Logo, that looked like something from a kindergarten art class, that was removed from the website a week after they moved. The other son, John (thanks Dad for the job too) hasn’t talked to the media since the 63-point blood letting loss to the Raiders a couple of years ago. Guess I wouldn’t want to be blamed for all things bad.
THE WORKOUT…For all the potential of what could have been, the freeze frame picture I got showed just 49-fans in the stands on the pressbox home side of the stadium when workouts began. By the end of the workouts, there might have been 1000-fans around the stadium, and maybe 100 or so wearing jerseys, hats, carrying footballs or pennants for a few of the players, including Justin Herbert to sign, a nice gesture by the QB and some of his OL. The fans wore (55) Seau, (85) Gates, (21) Tomlinson and (17) Rivers jerseys including some powder blue (10) Herbert jerseys. None of the players wearing the Lightning Bolt ever played for the San Diego Chargers.
ON THIS DAY..The bigger story was the video put out announcing Philip Rivers official retirement as a San Diego Charger, a video shot in his home in Alabama. A near 5-minute thank you, capped off when his entire offensive line, led by close friend Nick Hardwick walked into the house. He had tears in his eyes, choked up in the throat, and a universal hug for a good quarterback and a greater person. That whole group will likely be in Canton next weekend for the Antonio Gates induction in the Hall of Fame. Just remember, these guys are San Diego Chargers.
TRAINING CAMP…Tuesday brought back memories of the Chargers training camp, on the edge of the UCSD-campus, with the Pacific breeze as much part of practice as passes, punts and big plays. Lots of fans. In the best NFL camp climate I have ever been in (I remember the Steelers in steamy-hot-Latrobe-Pennsylvania). And then came new GM-John Butler and his hench-man AJ Smith-who pulled it out of San Diego. When last seen, the practices were at Cal State-Dominguez Hills, so the team could bond, in the heat-humidity and the smell of nearby oil refineries. It nearly led to a player’s revolt.
IN SUMMARY…Everyone who was part of the San Diego Chargers legacy, even in its final years, are gone from the organization with the exception of anyone last named Spanos. Nepotism is great if you are on the receiving end of it. It’s two days of NFL football back here with little meaning, still alot of resentment, and no future for America’s Finest City to ever get a team again. That’s the legacy of Team Spanos, who once describe themselves as the 1st Family of Football. That in itself is an insult to the legacy of the Rooneys, the Maras, the Krafts, even the disliked Jerry Jones. They took our team and its 55-years of loyal support. They cannot take our favorite memories. I hope Justin Herbert goes (17-0) and Dean Spanos goes (0-17). And virtually no one here will ever forget, nor ever forgive the Spanos family.
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