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“Chargers-Wave Flag-Red Flag”

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The San Diego Charger held a mini pep rally for the media yesterday, hoping to pull out all the stops, pull in as many as key people possible, calling out the voters in the city of San Diego to get out and vote on November 8th.

It’s Measure C on your ballot, to raise the Tourism Tax, to raise the money to build the NFL Stadium and the Convention Center annex.

The message was clear and loud as they waved the Chargers banner. It was like waving a red-flag infront of a bull too.

If you don’t pass the measure to raise the 1.8B for the downtown Stadium, you are inviting the Chargers to move to Los Angeles.

The Mayor Kevin Faulconer has signed off on the project, after getting guarantees from the Spanos family, that the team will pay for cost-overruns, and that city coffers will not be drained if there are financial issues that arise as construction progresses.

Chargers icon Philip Rivers and ex-Bolt defensive end Luis Castillo also spoke, and their tones were similar, they cannot imagine San Diego without the Chargers.

Point man Fred Maas admonished the media for bringing up the fact owner Dean Spanos is not putting a penny of his family wealth into his share of the financing, that money to come from fans purchase of PSL’s and advertisers naming rights fees. Though he was honest that Spanos will be on the hook, taking all the risks, if they don’t raise enough PSL money.

No one yesterday wanted to talk about the sticker-shock prices the fans will get when they see what PSL’s will cost per ticket, regardless of whether you sit at the 50-yard line or the 20-yard line.

Faulconer did not want to detail the behind the scenes stories involving attempts to get the State Supreme Court to sign off on reducing the “two-thirds” vote total for approval to a simple 50-plus-1.

But the real message in the flag waving was vote ‘yes’ to keep the NFL team. A no vote means the rich man owner can leave for whatever crumbs, riches, are left over now that the Rams have staked a claim, emotionally, physically and financially to the LA market.

Mention that threat of moving reminds everyone what Spanos tried to do all last year, move to Los Angeles.

Why is it everytime the Chargers have a chance to do something positive, they do something stupid. From dumping on city-county leaders as they tried to put together the first stadium plan, to turning yesterday’s public support event into a negative with more threats?

Waving the Chargers flag sounded good, but saying what they said about a ‘no vote’ was like raising a red flag again.

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“Kid Bolts-Have They Arrived”

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Could it be?

Could it be the Chargers have hit the jackpot on three draft picks, who are playing, playing alot, and playing well, all just 5-weeks into the season?

Joey Bosa wasted 31-days of the start of his career with the holdout and the hamstring injury. Since he has been on the field, all he has done is make plays, lots of plays, most notably in the other teams backfield.

2-quarterback sacks in 3-weeks, three tackles for losses already too, a motor that runs high octane. Pretty impressive.

The game does not seem to be too big for him here in the NFL, after he owned the Big 10-Conference.

He is ‘all football all the time.

Jatavis Brown owned the Mid American Conference at Akron, a linebacker-safety.

Forced on the field by the mess of injuries, he sure seems to be everywhere, making tackles, getting hits, and playing with enormous energy.

He’s not intimidated about being undesized, takes on people, gets to ballcarriers, and can fly.

He’s vibrant, always smiling, the switch always seems to be on.

Hunter Henry has come quickly at tight end. He’s come as advertised as a playmaker and down the field threat.

He was good at Arkansas last year, he’s even better here, as a receiver, yards-after-catch guy, and a blocker.

He gets open, wins battles at the line of scrimmage, overwhelms linebackers and safeties with his size, and gets yards after the catch. In the open field, watch out.

He smiles, he’s courteous, he’s smart.

Yes this (2-4) Chargers season has been a disappointing start. Out of the bad has come some good, at least so far this season. The rest of the roster, torn up by injuries, has some catching up to do.

This Tom Telesco draft this past spring, could be as good as some of the early AJ Smith drafts, that helped this team get good.

We’ll see what the next two road games mean to this team, but for now, it looks like those draft picks are players, keepers, difference makers.

You wish you could say that about the rest of the roster.

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“This That and Some of the Other”

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CHARGERS….They feel good about having beaten Denver lat Thursday. Now the question, can they duplicate that ‘my hair’s on fire effort’ going to Atlanta….The Falcons lost (got screwed) in Seattle, but QB-Matt Ryan lit up the Seahawks secondary for (335Y-3TD)

No one is talking but they should be concerned. CB-Brandon Flowers has had 3-concussion incidents in about 2-and-half years since coming to the Chargers.

Joey Bosa is everything as advertised and more. Explosive off the ball, lightning quick on stunts and scrape moves, high energy chasing down plays. Wish he had been here the first four weeks of the season on defense. Think they would not be in last place.

Jatavious Brown looks like a find. He and Denzel Perrryman seem to be cut from the same cloth, fast, lively, physical, though neither real good in pass coverage in the flat.

Dan Fouts is in the Hall of Fame, and now Philip Rivers has surpassed all his records. Can you say Canton when he is retired from San Diego?

The numbers don’t show up in stat sheets, but Melvin Gordon sticks his nose in it on blitz blocking. Huge improvement and now more reliable. Now if only he could stop the odd-fumbling.

Something really strange about punt returner Travis Benjamin, who averaged 11-yards everytime he touched the ball in Cleveland hauling kicks back. Lost his confidence? Lost his courage? Has misplayed two punts and let 3-others roll by him creating horrid field position. This isn’t a Jacoby Jones issue again is it?

The AFC West race is still within reach. Denver has offensive line problems. Kansas City rallied with a big win on the road. The Raiders got knocked off at home. Of course the Chargers have to prove they can beat those people in the division, but they do get the Chiefs and Raiders here later on the schedule.

You wonder if defensive coordinators have caught up with how to defend current Broncos QB-Trevor Siemian. Productivity is dropping. Ditto for ex-Broncos QB-Brock Osweiler, playing poorly in Houston now, with that 18M a year contract around his neck. He did rally the Texans vs the Colts, but that might habe been a by-product of how bad the Colts defense is.

So what will this week be like for Mike McCoy? Despite the Broncos win, and that was a pretty impressive showing against the Broncos, but the columnists and talkshow radio aren’t buying anything. They continue to bang on McCoy and his staff for lots of game management issues.

McCoy had the weekend off. Wonder if he had the chance to see the brassy “go for it on 4th down calls” by Sean Payton in New Orleans. McCoy took exception to my question about “letting it rip and getting bold on plays calls, 3rd and short, 4th and short. Nothing to lose really. If the losing continues, he loses his job. He doesn’t deserve job security. The Chargers deserve a chance to keep winning, even if it means going against the book

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“Chargers-Game Balls-Personal Foul Flags”

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Who needed that win over the Denver Broncos last nite more?

Coach Mike McCoy….his injury ravaged team….the fans?

In one of the more surprising games we’ve seen, a tired, beaten down, injured, and young team, stepped up and punch the 1st place Broncos in the mouth, right from the start, right till the final play of the game.

With just two days to prepare, the coaching staff inserted a package of offensive plays that protected Philip Rivers, wore out Denver’s defense, and gave the Chargers just enough cushion to hold off a late 4th quarter Broncos surge.

Ken Whisenhunt went to 3-step drops to offset the Von Miller led pass rush. They got the ball out on the edge, they got the ball to receivers and backs on crossing patters, and they kept Denver’s defense on the field.

At one point, San Diego had a ((160-21) edge in yards, and had run 29-plays to Denver’s 6. They scored just 1-TD…but they wound up with a bunch of Josh Lambo field goals to pad the margin.

The defense brought the heat against young quarterback Trevor Siemian. They blitz, they covered, they knocked receivers off their routes. And they stuffed running back CJ Anderson.

John Pagano has pass rushers coming from everywhere. They hit the QB, created a sack and a critical safety.

When it was over, Siemian threw 50-passes, took a brutal sack, 3-hits and had to run out of th pocket six times.

And when they completed passes, the tackling was sure, it was heavy, and the ball was on the ground.

Yes special teams sprung leaks. Punt returner Travis Benjamin got benched for failing to pick up two kicks, and letting one hit his leg-that turned into a Denver fumble recovery. He’s lost his confidence, or maybe his courage, odd for someone so prolific in Cleveland.

Dexter McCluster took a kickoff back for big time yards too.

With the San Diego Union calling for McCoy’s firing most every day Kevin Acee writes a column, with the national correspondants alerting us to be ready for a coaching firing,, the Chargers players put together a tremendous effort, with the gas tank running on low.

Game balls for McCoy getting his team to play on th edge. Whisenhunt for devising a diverse offense that had Rivers get the ball out to 7-receivers in the lst half. And to Pagano for dialing up a wide variety of blizes for pass rusher Joey Bosa and the linebackers to go after the Broncos quarterback.

15-yard penalty to Acee and his personal crusade to get the coach. The same columnist who said Rocky Long should be fired also at San Diego State, as the team embarked on a (15-1) run over the last year and a half.

This only counts as 1-win for this beleaguered franchise. It counts as another “got it wrong column” fromt he supposed know it-all at the Union Tribune.

McCoy needed the win badly. The players earned the win. The community gets at least a week to enjoy the fireworks.

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“Lousy Ending to Last Place Season”

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The misery over Padres baseball just will not go away.

In a stunner, Mike Dee was ousted as President and CEO, despite a track record of business success with the club.

There were positives, but the negatives outweighed what he accomplished.

Dee made Petco Park a destination point for families and fun. The constant renovations and upgrades made the place more than just a baseball stadium.

His business accumen led to the Padres making 20M plus per year from non-baseball events, a huge revenue stream the franchise needs.

His creative genius to bring back Padres history, with displays, and the newly opened Hall of Fame was special.

But there were negatives, lots of them.

Peter Seidler and the O’Malley family funded the purchase of the team from John Moores. The O’Malley’s were gone within a year, in part because of Dee’s way of doing business.

There was the handling-mishandling of the salute to Commissioner Bud Selig, and what happened at Palm Court, with the plaque ceremony, and what happened afterwards, when they took it down, to make room for the Hall of Fame building.

There was an undercurrent of unhappiness about the fact baseball ops, led by GM AJ Preller, a Dee hire, blew thru budgets without consideration to money coming in to money going out.

And then there was Preller himself, a rogue exec, hired by Dee despite a suspension in Texas, who then promptly incurred the wrath of the Commissioners office twice within a year with violations.

Dee orchestrated the firing of popular manager Bud Black, putting the club into a free-fall from which it has not recovered yet.

And Dee signed off on the the acquisitions of high priced stars, then the trade off of those stars with Padres money going out the door for prospects.

There were reports too of fou lups during the All Star festitivities, that upset MLB so much, their people had to come in to take over operation of some events.

Where do they go next?.

Ron Fowler must decide whether he wants a Business CEO only, or whether he needs a CEO with baseball experience to ride herd on Preller, once he comes off suspension.

Names mentioned include Orioles President-GM Dan Duquette. Joe Garagiola Senior was President of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and now works in the Commissioner’s office. Jerry Colangelo, the legendary NBA exec and founder of the Diamondbacks, has enormous business acumen. Jim Steeg, the longtime Chargers and NFL exec, is held in high regard in San Diego.

Preller has survived so far. Whether he does going forward remains to be seen, though the club spent 89M in resources to buy his blueprint and rebuild the farm system. Firing him would be a questionable decision for sure, since it will take time and patience to fix this franchise.

Dee was a protege of Larry Lucchino, who was the creative genius that got Petco Park built. Dee was also a bully on the business side, and fashioned himself as a key baseball talent exec too.

The Padres are better now as an organization because he was here. But the damage done in relationships around MLB was serious.

Ron Fowler and Peter Seidler are people of integrity. They could not have been happy with all the issues the Dee-Preller team created.

An MLB executive told me Fowler was under intense heat to to clean house. Dee’s guy, the GM, tried to screw two of the most influential people in baseball, John Henry and Jerry Reinsdorf.

In the end, Padres ownership was made to look bad, and the Commissioner’s office was not going to allow the decision makers to continue to operate that way.