Beginning their second year in Los Angeles, the Chargers are in an interesting spot. They have perhaps as talented a roster as they’ve possessed since their late-2000s run of AFC West titles but play in a soccer stadium and carry likely the NFL’s smallest fan base. The NFL gave Dean Spanos the option of leaving San Diego for L.A. in 2016, and he exercised it once the Bolts’ bid to secure public funding for a downtown stadium failed. But some owners were disappointed Spanos took the league up on the San Diego exit strategy, author Mark Leibovich writes in his new book, “Big Game: The NFL In Dangerous Times” (via Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune). Some of the owners were displeased with the efforts he put forth to land a new stadium deal in San Diego, Leibovich writes, adding this contingent of power brokers were “miffed” the Chargers owner turned the situation into “a towering embarrassment.”
This is an interesting stance considering the NFL gave the Chargers L.A. dibs before the Raiders, but now that the Bolts moved, they don’t appear to be thriving in their new market. That could have been expected given their lack of history in Los Angeles compared to the Rams or Raiders. Krasovic adds some around the league wonder if Spanos will sell the Chargers a few years into their stay at Stan Kroenke‘s Inglewood stadium in believing the franchise’s value will have peaked by then.
Here’s the latest from the AFC West:
- Joey Bosa‘s official diagnosis is a bone bruise on his left foot, Eric Williams of ESPN.com tweets. The Chargers defensive end is not expected to need surgery, with rest and rehab being the current plan to get the stalwart pass rusher back on the field. He’s not expected to play against the Bills on Sunday, and Anthony Lynn wouldn’t be surprised if he missed more games.
- Another day, another interesting move from Jon Gruden. The Raiders recently brought back wide receiver Johnny Holton, a backup who played in 31 games for Jack Del Rio‘s final two Oakland teams, but they’re going to try him as a cornerback, OC Greg Olson said (via the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Michael Gehlken, on Twitter). These type of moves are rare but not unprecedented. That said, Holton — currently on the Raiders’ practice squad — has never played cornerback at any level, per Vic Tafur of The Athletic (via Twitter). A UDFA out of Cincinnati, Holton caught nine passes for 218 yards and three touchdowns last season.
- The Broncos cut ties with Carlos Henderson, potentially for good, by removing him from their practice squad on Thursday. Vance Joseph said (via Troy Renck of Denver7, on Twitter) this was strictly a football decision and wasn’t related to the 2017 third-round pick’s suspension or his absence from training camp. Only four Broncos 2017 draftees — Garett Bolles, DeMarcus Walker, Jake Butt and Chad Kelly — remain on the active roster. Two others (cornerback Brendan Langley and return man Isaiah McKenzie) are on the practice squad. Henderson has to play in a regular-season game.
I feel those “miffed” power brokers would have done the same as Spanos had they been in the same situation. San Diego is a beautiful city but it isn’t a blue collar town that can support the NFL the way Pittsburgh does the Steelers and it isn’t Green Bay where following the Packers is a religion. San Diego is a diverse city with a navy presence, a world famous zoo, Delmar and several other attractions that the Chargers had to compete with while there.
Everyone but Spanos saw that LA would not support the Chargers. If the Chargers win then people would show up in San Diego.
People did show up in San Diego, I’m a die-hard San Diego Chargers fan, along with everyone I knew growing up.
Get out of here with that “Blue Collar” BS. I grew up in San Diego and played high school football here with Alex Smith, Reggie Bush and company, San Diego has and will always be a hot market for football interest and in breeding football talent.
Absolutely horrible family pried this team from a city that loved them so much. It’s gross.
Yeah, lots of steel mills and auto manufacturing plants in San Diego. It’s blue collar America for sure….lol.
Why would the Spanos sell? Another estimated $2b in revenue is coming this year alone in gambling! I’d pass that ownership down for generations. No different than many other teams; NYG, KC, Cinny, Tenn & Oak all come to mind as hand me down teams.
Spanos is an incompetent and chronically dishonest trust fund clown. He never met with San Diego officials to even pretend to negotiate. Prop C was designed to fail. He abandoned generations of fans and family traditions to get slightly more rich and be the JV team in LA. No stadium. No fans. No class. Karma will always win and therefore the Chargers will fail. If they weren’t so irrelevant, the “Spanos Chargers” would be sports biggest punchline.
San Diego would never take the Chargers back as long as the Spanoses own the team. Hopefully the NFL will see that LA is a huge failure when the Chargers can’t get more than 30,000 fans into Kroenke’s new digs. The owner need to somehow pressure Spanos into selling and get them back to SD. I’m sure something could get done with a new owner.