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Showing posts with the label San Diego Chargers

Tragedy strikes San Diego Charges again

Once again the phones started to ring, former San Diego Chargers from the franchise's lone Super Bowl team calling each other and digesting the news that another one of them was gone. With word that Junior Seau died Wednesday, the number of Chargers who played in the Super Bowl on Jan. 29, 1995, and are now dead, is eight. Eight in 18 years; too many in too little time. The subject is one I discussed, somewhat uncomfortably, with several of the former Chargers in 2008. This wasn't long after Chris Mims, their gregarious defensive end, was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment. Five had died back then. And that seemed like a lot.   I called a professor of actuarial science at the University of Wisconsin to see if she could put number on five men from a 53-man roster – all in their 20s and 30s – dying in so short a time. She said the odds were less than 1 percent.In the resulting story that ran in The Washington Post, many former players and coaches talked abo...

Los Angeles Stadium Deal trouble

More than three months after a clandestine meeting that featured billionaire developer Phil Anschutz, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Anschutz continues to show no interest in changing the terms of a deal that would return the NFL to downtown Los Angeles, Yahoo! Sports has learned.    That lack of interest means that plans for a downtown stadium to be built and run by Anschutz Entertainment Group may be all but dead in the eyes of many involved. AEG is supposed to unveil an Environment Impact Report on the site in early April. However, that report may be worth little more than the paper it’s printed on if Anschutz and AEG don’t make a shift in the financial plan that’s been presented to NFL officials. Three sources said the four men met in Denver on the weekend of Dec. 18, when New England played there against the Broncos. Villaraigosa requested the meeting in hopes of encouraging Ans...