And here I was hoping to run into Mark Davis when I purposely went to Pottery Barn’s bowl display, where he gets his hair cut.

Guess I’ll just have to go on without him and say that, now that the deal he had to move his Raiders out of Oakland to Vegas appears to have crapped out, he should get on the phone with Mayor Kevin Faulconer. If he hasn’t already.

And His Honor should get on the horn with the Raiders’ owner, you know, Mark, son of Al, and tell him to get into that 1977 bubble-top Dodge Caravan of his and head south on the I-5. He hasn’t. Yet.


But Faulconer, angry over the Chargers’ betrayal, is ready to become the hunter. He’s on top of it. He’s had plenty of contact with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in recent weeks, so they are not strangers.

“I am going to ask senior NFL officials for their input, what’s the best way to move forward,” the mayor says. “As you know, things are moving very quickly.

“We’ve got to get all the facts, but there’s no question, we’re interested. Absolutely. We’re an NFL city and we want to continue the opportunity to be an NFL city.”

What doesn’t happen in Vegas can happen in San Diego, although San Diego often tries its best to not make anything truly meaningful happen, other than bike lanes and stuff it can get without paying a price.


Never thought I’d say it: The Raiders should come here. Up to a few weeks ago, when the Judases and Dean “Fredo” Spanos lit out for L.A., we were an NFL town for 56 years.

There are other reasons — the situation in Oakland is untenable — but just to see the hissy fits Dean and landlord Stan Kroenke would have if San Diego got an NFL refill would be worth the price of Mark’s admission to our borders.

Oakland Raiders fans celebrate a touchdown against the Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium on Dec. 18, 2016. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)

I’m not saying the Vegas try was a bad one, although it always was iffy.


Davis got Nevada to ante up $750 million chips for a new stadium near the Strip. But he also was relying on casino big shot Sheldon Adelson’s $650 million (about $500 million more coming from Davis and NFL money). And Monday, Adelson, obviously sensing some hypocritical League bosses didn’t care to have a casino mogul in their divine cathedral, backed out. And when Sheldon faded, so apparently did Goldman Sachs as a potential financial companion.

When it comes to wherewithal, Davis probably rivals Spanos as the NFL’s poorest owner, which, when club worth is removed, puts his wealth at around $500 million. But his Raiders play in football’s worst stadium. If you think Qualcomm’s bad, it’s Versailles next to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

And Davis has made it clear in the past that he loves San Diego. Think about it. His dad was a Sid Gillman assistant with the Chargers here in 1961-62, leaving in ’63 to coach the Raiders. Al later became AFL commissioner (personally responsible for the AFL-NFL merger, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise) and then, somehow, the team’s partner of managing general partner, or whatever he was titled.

So Mark, born sometime in the mid-1950s — no one seems to know the year for certain, as if he’s Archie Moore or Zsa Zsa Gabor — had to live here as a child. Probably went to school in San Diego.


It’s been kind of crazy here this week, what with the talk of a group — which includes estimable Padres money man Peter Seidler — buying a portion of the 166-acre Qualcomm site and building a small stadium suitable for a Major League Soccer franchise and possibly San Diego State football.

I’ve already let it known how I feel about small stadiums. I have no problem with MLS. I don’t care if 10 MLS teams come here. But a 30,000-seat stadium will be too small for Aztecs football and the Holiday Bowl.

“The size,” Faulconer says, “is negotiable.”

But it won’t be NFL-size. And there would be room on all that acreage to accommodate an NFL/Super Bowl stadium.


“We can have both the MLS and NFL,” the mayor insists, “and we can do it successfully. I believe that. This is not an either-or.”

The trick is getting a bigger stadium built. But it can be done. It is not getting done in Oakland.

Maybe it’s hard to imagine the Raiders in San Diego, and it is a tough one. But Davis, who is hands-off, has put together one of the NFL’s better football operations behind GM Reggie McKenzie and coach Jack Del Rio. The Raiders are good — and much nicer now. Really.

Perhaps die-hard Chargers fans — those of the former variety and those who will continue to be — won’t flock to see what always was a one-sided enemy. But football fans will go. And I have no doubt Raiders fans will swarm, as on Dec. 18 here vs. the Chargers, when they made up 80 percent of the Qualcomm crowd.


They don’t need a new stadium right away. Al already proved in court they can’t be stopped if they want to move. They can come here and get comfortable and annihilate Spanos and Kroenke in the process.

Nothing better than that.

sezme.godfather@gmail.com; Twitter: @sdutcanepa