Told you so. I did. The Chargers will play football here in 2016. And I’m saying they probably will be playing football here long after that.

Sure beats Dean Spanos playing Lucy and Ricky Ricardo to Stan Kroenke’s Fred Mertz in Inglewood, where Deano is about as welcome as more nitrous oxide.

I’m not taking any pride in the fact that I have eyes and ears and after 44 years in this business know what manure smells like. And when it comes to this Chargers stadium/L.A./Carson/Inglewood/Kroenke business, there have been mountains of the crap, so foul even my ancient nose could pick up the scent.

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After Houston, you could have seen this coming in a cave with patches over both eyes and a bag over your head. Houston, man. Houston.


Dean Spanos got the big knuckle sandwich in Houston. Not that it was all his fault. But he didn’t really put up his dukes. And the lights went out.

That’s what we must remember. Houston.

A few weeks ago the Chargers’ owner took the standing eight there and retreated to his corner without much fight left. Dean’s Carson stadium project had been blown out of the sky by his fellow NFL owners/“friends” in favor of landlord Stan Kroenke’s Inglewood digs for his Rams.

What to do? Spanos hated the Inglewood site and was far from being in love with Kroenke, but once he climbed out of the ring in Houston he found a rock here and a hard place there — San Diego and Stan’s bed. So he (reluctantly, I’m sure) worked out a deal with Kroenke in Inglewood and then announced Friday the Chargers will play here in 2016 while he toils with Mayor Kevin Faulconer & Co. to get a new stadium done here.


“I have met with Mayor Faulconer and Supervisor (Ron) Roberts and I look forward to working closely with them and the business community to resolve our stadium dilemma,” said Spanos, who Friday invited the two politicians to his house. “My focus is on San Diego. This has been our home for 55 years, and I want to keep the team here and provide the world-class stadium experience you deserve.”

Dean wasn’t saying this three weeks ago, when he probably seemed certain his Carson project would fly. I didn’t. I thought — knew — Kroenke never was going back to St. Louis, that he was skedaddling to L.A. no matter what. The other owners weren’t stopping him. They couldn’t stop Al Davis moving the Raiders, and next to Kroenke, Al was a panhandler.

Spanos overplayed his hand, as a powerful person in this town told me last summer. But, as I wrote 10 years ago, Qualcomm Stadium is a dump and the team wasn’t playing there forever. The city allowed the place to go to seed, and while the Chargers did almost nothing to improve the place — the video boards were put up by Thomas Edison — they have been renters.

In any event, here’s what has to happen now. Spanos and counsel Mark Fabiani not only have to meet with city pols and come to some sort of agreement, but it’s time for some of this city’s muscle, it’s businesspeople, to get involved. If the Chargers prefer the downtown stadium initiative, then all the weight should be put behind that.


It can get done. There is life now. And there’s no question the Chargers will be better off here than they will be climbing into the caboose on Kroenke’s money train.

Will they be viewed as lame ducks here in 2016? Too early to tell. Fans are more forgiving than anybody. And their distrust of the Spanoses didn’t start last year. Fans do not attend games to watch owners.

If Spanos puts a product on the field, people will come. A 4-12 team is not a product.

But this is an NFL city. The Chargers have a fan base, which they won’t have in Los Angeles. There is more risk than reward for Dean in Inglewood, or he’d already be on the 405. I believe he never wanted to leave here. If he overplayed his hand, and he did, he was forced to.


And let’s drop the vitriol. Do we need players such as Keenan Allen and Melvin Ingram tweeting idiotic statements saying the fans better come out and fill Qualcomm? Maybe they should win some games, which they can’t do with their mouths.

What we need is more Philip Rivers, who, after hearing the news, said: “Awesome.”