Enjoy Monday Night Football.  You probably won’t enjoy the atmosphere at Qualcomm Stadium though, unless you wear Blue and Orange-Da Bears colors.

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It doesn’t feel right at all to you.  It feels downright fraudulant.  In fact, considering who was involved, it’s borderline disgusting.

The NFL is scrambling after Senator John McCain exposed them in their latest money-grab, the Pay-for-Patriotism advertising campaign.

It’s another item to add to the checklist of shady business dealings executed by the NFL, Roger Goodell, its ownerships, including Dean Spanos.

McCain unearths information that as part of the Department of Defense’s marketing plan to recruit people into the military, the Government spent 6.8M in taxpayers dollars over a 4-year period, to advertise in NFL Stadiums.

The Chargers received 435,000 in advertising buys thru the DOD, as the Military became an in-stadium sponsor of Chargers home games.

What we saw were great emotional military displays, fly overs, full field flags, salutes to Wounded Warriors, military honored in skyboxes, featured on the big screen scoreboard.  All things designed for us to extend an emotional thanks for all who have put themselves in harms way against global terror.

Now we find out it was staged.  It was a sponsored advertising campaign.  It was the NFL teams charging big money rates for the military to sponsor all this.  Pay for the Patriotism display at selected home games.

It’s shameful, that the mega-profit owners of NFL teams, have to stoop so low to create this ‘love the soldier’ image at home games, when it reality, it is ‘love your money’, and here’s an idea.

I have no doubt this came out of the NFL league office, some marketing executive creating this special emotional attachment imagery to an in stadium promotion. all the while making sure teams got a cut of the DOD advertising budget.

The Chargers are no less guilty than any other NFL team.  Assume Robert Kraft and Jerry Jones and many others, in addition to Spanos felt good about the on-field presentation, and even better about the profits they made.

In an era when we weep for those who died, and those who suffered life changing wounds by serving their country, does this not make you sick to your stomach?  It should.  It would if one of your family members was a victim of snipers, or shell fragments or the trauma.

The NFL, without regard to moral obligation, just seems to go on and on.

A year ago, there was the scandal about how much the NFL profited from the Breast Cancer weekend, where everyone wore pink, everyone stood up for women victims of breast cancer, only to find out the NFL and its manufacturers took a large volume of the money taken in, rather than send it on for cancer research.

Need we remind you of the Dallas Super Bowl ticket scandal in the Cowboys stadium, the ticket prices for seats that didn’t exist, or were constructed with limited views just before game day, that led to lawsuits.

And though they never admitted to anything, we have the 935M concussion lawsuit for all those players with CTE, brain damage, Alzheimers-Dimentia, and those who committed suicide.  You don’t really believe out of the goodness of their heart, the NFL owners just decided to write a check do you, or was it because they knew, and their was evidence out there, that was going to show up in lawsuit discovery?

Power and greed corrupt.  I’ve believed it for a long time.  It seems we are revisiting that issue again with the “Pay for Patriotism” promotion that has been uncovered.  .

Roger Goodell says his office will investigate.  They may order the money returned, or maybe donated to Military families in need.

Pick a word to describe it.  Disgusting, Dirty, Corrupt.

Playing off the emotions of the fans and the flag, while pocketing big profits.

It would be nice to see a formal NFL apology, on every NFL TV-broadcast on a given week, when all this is sorted out.

The NFL reaching a new all-time low.

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The Chargers have skidded to the mid-season of the NFL schedule, a team going in the wrong direction with an owner trying to go take his franchise out of town. A midseason report card on the (2-6) Bolts.

Owner…Dean Spanos used to be a special guy…active in the community….available….now reclusive…borderline despicable because of what he has allowed Mark Fabiani to do in the community on his behalf….and his franchise is falling apart on the field…..Grade (D)

General Manager…Tom Telesco still gets passing grades because the top of his draft boards have brought quality players here…but you need more than an occasional impact player….Only 4-of-17 draft choices have had positive impact on team. By January, the Chargers will have won just 1-playoff game with Rivers at quarterback in 7-years. His free-agent signings and cash outlays for bonuses are a disaster….Has turned Chargers into the Colts-great quarterback-soft team….Grade (D)

Coach…Mike McCoy…..Guess we’ll never know how good this team could have been and how good he could have been with his creative genius since injuries have destroyed the team…..But injuries are part of the NFL and he is (20-20) now in two and half seasons with that quarterback….He must win next year to keep the job….Still believe Frank Reich can be good with weapons….John Pagano era should be over…I said day they hired McCoy-best guy going into the best situation…..Situation going in wrong direction…Grade (C).

QB…Philip Rivers….Without him this would be the Detroit Lions or Jacksonville Jaguars, but I fear his career is headed the way Dan Marino’s went, losing (62-7) in his final game….Everything about the player and person is special…Grade (A)

RB…Melvin Gordon is learning on the job, about fumbles, hits, blocking etc…Still great upside with his explosive talent…..Who knows how good he is because he has no help upfront…but then again neither does Todd Gurley and look at his numbers coming off knee surgery with the Rams…Danny Woodhead does all he can with his God-given talents….Grade (C)

WR…Keenan Allen has a fine career ahead of him now that he has learned what it is like to be a pro…Malcom Floyd in farewell tour….rest of receivers have been pedestrian-though Stevie Johnson needs to get ball more…Add in productivity of Antonio Gates-Ladarius Green and group is good …Grade (A)

OL….A disaster from tackle-to-tackle…Have to question long-term health of King Dunlop….DJ Fluker playing with great heart….everyone else injured…Stunning Orlando Franklin misses 1-game in career in Denver-then has three different injuries in San Diego in eight weeks…Pass protection shaky-run blocking awful…Not all their fault because they are hurt…Grade (D).

DL…This is not player problem-it’s organizational problem…have failed to address defensive front in past five drafts at top of draft board….Corey Liuget cannot do it by himself….none of young players they brought in is a difference maker….Grade (D).

LB…You see flashes and say Melvin Ingram and Jerry Attaochu can create havoc in the blitz package…Virtually nothing from the Inside backers….Mantei Te’o injury issues for 3rd year in a row-he’s no Luke Kuechly is he…..Donald Butler never been the same since early career…Grade (C).

DB…Jason Verrett has stayed on the field and grown into shutdown corner…Eric Weddle, in contract year, has missed more tackles than I have ever seen…Brandon Flowers woke up an old man who cannot run anymore….Jahleel Addae is great at blasting people after the catch and run is made…Grade (D)

Special Teams…Josh Lambo is rock solid…Mike Scifres not what he used to be-age-injury…Jacoby Jones unemployed-leaving with lots of their money….Other teams get guys who make big returns-not this franchise….Kick cover units almost as disgraceful as return units…Grade (D)

Franchise….This won’t be a (1-15) type season like the Ryan Leaf era, because they have two wins so far, but this is a miserable feeling around this team, its leadership, its football people….Atmosphere at Stadium turning sour with fans selling their tickets-next road game for Chargers will be Monday night ‘home’ game vs Bears….Flash back to the season Art Modell announced he was moving the Browns to Baltimore-Cleveland didn’t win a game after that…..Chargers don’t seem to be the same either with all this ‘move to LA mojo’…..Grade (D)

The World Series parade was something to behold, 30-years in the making, the trip down Main Street-Kansas City.

Royals fans, who dressed as empty seats for a decade and a half are back wearing their colors, cheering their team, drawing over 2.7M to the Stadium this year.

It hasn’t been an easy trip. Hated owner David Glass, poor baseball leadership, nickle and dime budgets, 17-losing seasons in an 18-year span. It takes time to fix all the wrongs, all the mistakes made, but it finally got done, and done right in Kansas City.

The Royals got there thru years of losing, following by astute drafting, complimented by key international free agent signings, and then those ‘fill in the blanks on this roster’ deals.

It wasn’t this way always in KC. The era of Dennis Leonard, Dan Quisenberry, Hal McRae, George Brett, Willie Wilson, Brett Saberhagen, Mark Gubiza was a long time ago, 30-baseball summers ago.

But out of all the losing, from 2002-to-2006, seasons of 100-100-104-and-106 losses, eventually came high draft picks, and then General Manager Dayton Moore.

All that losing begat four straight high draft picks, that panned out. Alex Gordon (2), Luke Hochevar (1), Mike Moustakos (2), Eric Hosmer (3) and Dan Duffy, were all taken as top of the first round selections, and became the cornerstone of what the Royals are at this hour, championships.

The Caribbean connection brought them World Series MVP-catcher Sal Perez, SS-Alcides Escobar, and the arms Kelvin Herrera, Yordano Ventura and Christain Colon.

Then there came the rentals, dealing other minor league prospects in packages that rented Johnny Cueto, Alex Rios, Ben Zobrist, Edinson Volquez, Wade Davis and Lorenzo Cain.

In a 24-month span, it arrived, almost simultaneously. A wild card spot and a World Series berth in 2014, a runaway first place season and now a World Series ring in 2015. A far cry from all those lousy hot-humid-bad baseball summer nights that stifled the spirt of the fans in the early 2000s.

I looked it up. The Royals payroll to win the World Series was 110M-dead middle on the MLB spending charts, ranked 15th, right next to the San Diego Padres, who spent 110M to get worse, finish lower in the standings, and never see the real October.

Look at the youth and the cross section of talent from everywhere on the Royals roster. Compare it to the Padres, impaled by bad contracts they took on, looking now at a barren farm system because they dealt so many prospects away, empty results in the international market, and reeling with age and injury.

The flashy phrase these days is ‘the Royals way’, just like a group of years ago, it was the ‘Tampa Bay blueprint’. Still to come will be the ‘Cubs Creedo’. You can call it whatever you want, when it works.

For the Padres fans, it sure looks like they screwed this thing up, and the Padres and Royals are a long way apart, more than just the 1,605 miles it takes to drive from Petco Park to Royals Stadium.

World Series ring for one…..Cracker Jacks booby prize for the other.

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The NFL trading deadline is Tuesday afternoon. It is not to be compared with Baseball’s trading deadline at the end of July, or the NHL trading deadline in February.

But the NFL is slowly starting to rethink its ways of dealing players and draft picks.

Time for the Chargers to do the same, as the season slips away, with a chance to start to stockpile extra ‘currency’ for next April’s NFL draft.

History has shown few deals at the trading deadline. The Dallas Cowboys-Minnesota Vikings 11-for-1 deal involving Herschel Walker back in the 80s was something to see. So was the late fall Eric Dickerson-Colts-Rams mid season transaction.

Of recent time, we have seen more player-for-player deals. The Seahawks, Cowboys, Patriots and Eagles have become the franchises unafraid to make trades.

The Chargers season is over. Some of the value they have on the roster they could use as chips to get draft picks to add to the likely top 5-draft choices this team might have in each round next spring.

Sure you’d be moving some popular players, but in some cases, you aren’t keeping certain players, in other cases you’d like to move players who have higher value-lower production contracts. You may take a cap hit in the process, but you admit you made a mistake, and move on. What’s worse, staying with the mistake?.

Eric Weddle has had a rock solid career here, but he won’t be back. His value is dropping, and he doesn’t deserve a pay raise from his 8M deal. Move him to a team that likely would sign him to an extension. Can you say Dallas Cowboys or New England Patriots. Get a 4th round pick that gets bumped to a 3rd when he re-signs.

Donald Butler has never been the same linebacker since his contract extension and injuries. Maybe in a different system he can recapture what he once was. He is not a 5M a year guy here. Make a call and maybe get a 5th round pick..

Danny Woodhead is so good at what he does, but what he does isn’t making much of a difference here. Find an offense that could use his skills and explosiveness and see if there’s an instant 3rd round pick out there.

Yes you’d be auctioning off the rest of the season, but you are still keeping core players like Jason Verrett, Melvin Ingram, Jerry Attaochu, Keenan Allen. You give some younger plays the chance to learn on the job and get them ready for next season.

The tandem of Tom Telesco and John Spanos have failed quarterback Philip Rivers. The drafts have been spotty. Yes there is a Melvin Gordon and others, but of the 17-picks in the Junior Spanos-Tom Terrific era, just 4-are what I’d call impact.

The free-agent signings haven’t paid rich dividends either, haunted by the Derek Cox money giveaway, and the burnt money on Orlando Franklin, amongst others.

Sure some of the younger draft picks may turn out to be talents within the next 3-years, but look at the mileage on Philip Rivers by then.

You can’t stay with this battered roster. Time to pick up currency. Multiple 3rd round picks or extra 4th round choices can be used to move up and grab additional 2nd round picks.

Sure you’re moving popular players, but what does it get you if you stay the course. A 6-win season?

Call Bill Belicheck, Pete Carroll, Chip Kelly, and others. Find out what is out there from guys who always seem to make trades and have lots of extra picks in their pocket.

Denver was involved in a deal with San Francisco, as John Elway acquired tight end Vernon Davis.   If the Broncos can be a player at the deadline, why not the Bolts?

Think outside the box, get outside of this mess, quit protecting the integrity of the (2-6) team you put together..