The relationship was salvageable. Now it is in ashes.

That’s the point.

Eric Weddle should have told his coaches he was staying on the field to watch his daughter dance at halftime of the team’s home finale.

OK.


That’s not the point.

The Chargers brass should have reacted differently, rather than fine him $10,000. They also could have waited to put him on injured reserve and made it clear to him he could attend Sunday’s season finale in Denver.

Charger Eric Weddle watched from the sidelines during their recent game against the Miami Dolphins at Qualcomm Stadium. (Nelvin C. Cepeda)

That is, if they wanted a chance to keep their prideful and willful free safety beyond this season.


Obviously, they don’t. Because no one could be dumb enough to think it is not a virtual certainty the five-time All-Pro will depart in free agency.

It didn’t have to be this way. The Chargers needed to acknowledge Weddle is a different kind of dude and act accordingly.

They didn’t, and that speaks to a larger problem the organization has in dealing with its players.

If you want the guy who makes plays and makes up for others missing plays and who so often plays when his body is telling him to not play, you take the man who speaks his mind and, in certain instances, you treat him differently.


Weddle did not tell team officials beforehand that he was staying on the field. He should have done that. But he missed a seven-minute halftime and a much shorter address by defensive coordinator John Pagano during the intermission in a game in which the Chargers had a 23-0 lead. The team did not have to penalize him for what it termed “conduct detrimental to the team.”

Detrimental? How about completely alienating a player who spends as much time at the facility as anyone and has started 93 of the past 95 games through myriad injuries and taught younger players on and off the field and been like a coach during games. In addition to making plays that others screw up, this is one of the great family men and role models in the game.

Between 2011 and ‘14, Weddle played more than 98 percent of the Chargers’ defensive snaps and almost half (49percent) of their special teams snaps. No other player in the NFL played even 75 percent of his team’s defensive snaps and 49 percent of the kick team snaps in that span.

Only this year, after the team cited his volume of snaps and age (31 in January) as reasons it was declining to rework his contact, has Weddle hardly played any special teams. Still, he was back on punt team the past two games, because there was a need.


You don’t decline to engage that kind of player in talks about a contract extension. You don’t fine him for watching his daughter dance. And you find a way to get him on the team flight for the final trip, even if you’re taking a smaller-than-usual charter plane and the regular protocol is that players on IR don’t travel.

Speaking of which, Weddle also didn’t have to go on IR Monday.

Weddle re-injured his groin in Thursday’s loss at Oakland and did not play in the second half. It was possible he wasn’t going to be ready to play at Denver. However, there is some disagreement between the sides about whether that call needed to be made now.

Yes, the Chargers are short on defensive backs. But they already have an idea cornerback Jason Verrett won’t be able to play Sunday, and he wasn’t placed on IR. Why not? Could it be that they are doing him a solid, as he is a Pro Bowl first alternate and has two more years left on a contract they almost certainly will try to extend.


Chargers decision makers besides coach Mike McCoy declined comment. Weddle, too, declined to speak.

At his post-practice press conference, McCoy said, “It’s the organization’s call. We did what we did.”

McCoy also said that despite the unpleasantness of the spring when Weddle did not attend voluntary workouts, “He was his usual self (this season). That’s why he’s a team captain. Eric is Eric.”

Exactly.


Now he’s someone else’s problem.