What we have here in Carson is a sun-washed cautionary tale for the rapacious Lords of Football. Once upon a time, the Chargers passed half a century in San Diego, a once-sleepy team and a once-sleepy city coming of age together. The team perfected a signature fan-pleasing toss-and-gun offense led by the Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts, and the fans slathered the players with adoration. Now and then the team rewarded them with a playoff berth. Once, they went to the Super Bowl together.

For quite a bit of that history, however, the Spanos family has owned the Chargers, and never seemed to stop grousing. They made a tidy profit but not enough. They demanded that San Diego foot much of the bill for a world-class stadium, with luxury suites and seat licenses, that theft that masquerades as financial innovation in the National Football League.

The Spanos clan wheedled and threatened, and San Diego politicians and fans kept shaking their heads. They loved their Chargers, but these fiscally conservative residents were not going to build a rich man’s confection.

Dean Spanos pouted and eventually moved his team to Los Angeles. There, his Chargers will eventually live as the kept tenants of another football billionaire, Stan Kroenke, who is spending many billions of dollars to build a ziggurat of a new stadium in Inglewood for his Rams. Kroenke, too, betrayed his fans; his were in St. Louis, where three years ago he packed up the Rams and moved them back to Los Angeles.