The Spaz
04-18-2004, 05:29 PM
Standing at a podium in a party tent six years ago, San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos gushed about the team's new quarterback, obtained with the second pick in the draft.
``He's the future,'' said Spanos, who couldn't make it any clearer he loathed going to New York to exercise such a high pick. ``Quite frankly, this man will solve all those problems for the next 15 years, and I told him that.''
Oops! The Chargers had stumbled into merely the worst judgment call in franchise history. That QB, of course, was Ryan Leaf. As the Chargers repeatedly discovered during his disastrous three years in town, his last name might as well have been Grief.
Leaf is long gone from the NFL, but his blimp-like shadow still hangs over the Chargers, the team parity forgot.
How else to explain why other teams routinely go from worst to while the only thing this one does with regularity is lose?
The Chargers are 43-85 since their last playoff appearance in 1995, and for the second time in four seasons, they own the top pick in the draft. By going 4-12 in Marty Schottenheimer's second year as coach, they surpassed even the Cincinnati Bengals in futility.
And perceptions die hard. Just like in 2001, fans are wondering if the Chargers are unnerved about using this pick on a quarterback -- and paying a huge signing bonus -- because of the Leaf fiasco.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-chargers-theteamparityforgot&prov=ap&type=lgns
``He's the future,'' said Spanos, who couldn't make it any clearer he loathed going to New York to exercise such a high pick. ``Quite frankly, this man will solve all those problems for the next 15 years, and I told him that.''
Oops! The Chargers had stumbled into merely the worst judgment call in franchise history. That QB, of course, was Ryan Leaf. As the Chargers repeatedly discovered during his disastrous three years in town, his last name might as well have been Grief.
Leaf is long gone from the NFL, but his blimp-like shadow still hangs over the Chargers, the team parity forgot.
How else to explain why other teams routinely go from worst to while the only thing this one does with regularity is lose?
The Chargers are 43-85 since their last playoff appearance in 1995, and for the second time in four seasons, they own the top pick in the draft. By going 4-12 in Marty Schottenheimer's second year as coach, they surpassed even the Cincinnati Bengals in futility.
And perceptions die hard. Just like in 2001, fans are wondering if the Chargers are unnerved about using this pick on a quarterback -- and paying a huge signing bonus -- because of the Leaf fiasco.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-chargers-theteamparityforgot&prov=ap&type=lgns