The Chargers are in talks with the Rams about a potential move from San Diego to Los Angeles, and a social media change the organization made may have tipped their plans.
On Tuesday, the Chargers changed their Snapchat logo from one that mentions “San Diego” to one that does not. Observe:
That Snapchat logo (also known as a Snapcode) is used as the profile photo for the Chargers’ Twitter and Facebook profiles as well.
The man who made the change said on Twitter that it was unrelated to any news and that he simply preferred the look:
The Chargers have a year to decide whether they will join the Rams in Los Angeles. If they decline the opportunity to do so, the Raiders would have the chance to negotiate. If the Chargers decide to move to LA, they also have to determine whether they would remain in San Diego for another year or play the 2016 season at the Coliseum, which is what the Rams will be doing while their stadium is under construction.
A report on Monday said the Rams and Chargers had come to an impasse in their talks. The NFL has a March 23 deadline for the Chargers to inform them of their plans for the upcoming season.
H/T Bolt Beat
The Rams are moving to Los Angeles, and now we are waiting to find out which team will be joining them. The Chargers will have the first shot at it, with the Raiders having withdrawn their application. Oakland, however, can jump back in if the Chargers decide to stay in San Diego and build a new stadium.
There’s also a chance — a very, very slim one — that the Chargers could move to L.A. along with the Rams and the Raiders could relocate to San Diego. If that ever happened, Philip Rivers tells Darren Smith of Mighty 1090 AM that he might lose his lunch.
“That one can get me a little nauseated, to be honest with you,” Rivers said when asked about the possibility of the Raiders moving to San Diego. “The thought of that one is a little sickening. That one’s hard to stomach. It’s hard enough thinking about moving. … The thought of the Raiders being here and us not might be tougher than all the rest. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that.”
Again, that scenario is highly unlikely. Rivers spoke about how much the city of San Diego has meant to him during his 12-year career, and he has a better chance of staying where he is than the Raiders infiltrating his town.
If this report is true, the Chargers are heading to L.A. That will leave the Raiders fighting for a new stadium in Oakland, where they have a pretty rabid fanbase. Moving to San Diego would make little sense.
The San Diego Chargers appear to be heading to Los Angeles as well, as they have reportedly already worked out the framework of a deal with the Rams.
As per Tuesday night’s agreed deal, the Rams are headed to Los Angeles, and the Chargers were given the option to join them if they could negotiate a deal with the Rams over stadium usage. This, apparently, is already very far along.
Things came together very quickly, and it seems as though there was motivation on both sides to get this done. According to ProFootballTalk, Rams owner Stan Kroenke can’t sell premium products such as naming rights until 2017 unless he strikes a deal with the Chargers. There was talk that Kroenke might try to keep the Chargers out of the Los Angeles market, but that appears not to be the case, and the city may well go from zero NFL franchises to two in the span of about 48 hours.
The San Diego Chargers appear to be the front-runner to relocate to Los Angeles this offseason, and the team will leave behind a lot of unhappy fans if that happens. Many of those fans have tattoos showing their support for the franchise that has called San Diego home since 1961.
If the Chargers move, some fans with team-inspired ink are going to want to treat their artwork as though it pays tribute to an ex-lover. Michael Speaker, the manager of Tattoo Laser Removal Clinic in San Diego, is bracing himself for that.
“There are so many things that people want off of them: exes’ names, fairies, skulls, job-stopper tattoos, which are in the neck and hands,” Speaker told Michael Gehlken of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “There’s plenty of regret out there. … Whether it’s an ex-wife or an ex-team, we take it off. That’s the patient’s desire.”
As Speaker explained to Gehlken, the yellow and powder blue colors on many Chargers-inspired tattoos make them difficult to remove. Laser removal requires many treatments over a long span of time. Legendary Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson (whose ink is shown above) can safely keep his tattoo, but others like 29-year-old Carlos Rodriguez are planning to have their tattoos altered if the Chargers skip town.
“I’ll add the year they got to San Diego and the year they left,” Rodriguez said. “It’ll have those two dates on it. My uncle Rudy Ortega has two big lightning bolts on his forearms. He’s going to do the same.”
Most people will likely make adjustments to their tattoos or keep them as throwback tributes. But if there are Chargers fans out there who are as rabid as this guy, the move to L.A. is going to require some serious thought.
Rumors continue to swirl that Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints might decide to part ways after the season, and there’s a chance Payton could end up in Los Angeles.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports that Payton has “discussed privately” the possibility of coaching the Chargers, who are the top candidate to relocate to L.A. next season. Rapoport’s colleague Albert Breer hinted that Payton has interest in any team that moves to L.A. and could also wind up with the Colts.
The L.A. speculation makes sense, as Payton was previously linked to the USC job because his daughter goes to college at Pepperdine University.
There’s no guarantee Payton leaves New Orleans, and the future of Drew Brees and his $30 million salary cap hit for 2016 could play a big role in determining the coach’s next move. But if the Saints do make Payton available, we already know there are several NFL teams that will be interested. He should have no trouble finding work in L.A. or elsewhere.
A representative for the San Diego Chargers confirmed in a radio interview that the team intends to file the necessary paperwork paving the way for a potential move to Los Angeles.
This doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise, as the Chargers have long been expected to make this move. Still, it’s the first solid confirmation that it’s happening.
“At this point yes, because there’s no sign that the other team or teams are not going to file,” spokesman Mark Fabiani told The Mighty 1090 AM, per the San Diego Union Tribune. “Everyone assumes all three teams will file, and in that case we can’t afford to lose our market in Los Angeles and Orange County.”
“If everything is moving ahead, obviously we’re not going to be standing on the sidelines and watching everything go by,” Fabiani continued. “We’ve got to stay in the game to protect the franchise.”
The Raiders and Rams have also been rumored to be considering a move to Los Angeles, but the Chargers are the first to confirm that they’re actually moving forward with the plans. According to Fabiani, those two franchises played a role in the announcement, as the Chargers cannot afford to lose the 25 percent of season ticket holders from the Los Angeles metro area.
The actions stem from the Chargers’ inability to get the downtown stadium that they desire in San Diego, while the city would prefer it to be in a similar location to the current Qualcomm Stadium.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the Chargers moving to Los Angeles is a done deal. There’s still a long way to go, and the paperwork won’t even be filed until January. Chargers fans will also have the opportunity to be heard at an NFL-scheduled public forum on Wednesday.
The NFL has yet to make any official announcements about its future plans to move one or more teams to Los Angeles, but it seems highly likely that the San Diego Chargers are a top candidate.
In fact, the Chargers aren’t really keeping it a secret. One of the requirements for a recent job listing the team posted is that applicants must be “willing to relocate to the Los Angeles area, if necessary.”
It seems like it’s a matter of when — not if — the Chargers will be moving to LA. Philip Rivers is entering the final year of his contract with the team, and it’s unclear if the franchise’s impending move is making him want out of town. But if the new stadium in LA is as awesome as some expect it to be, my guess is most prospective employees won’t be opposed to working there.
No one really knows where Marcus Mariota is going to end up, but his camp apparently feels that two teams are competing to trade up and draft him.
According to ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio, the feeling among those close to Mariota is that the San Diego Charges and Philadelphia Eagles are looking to trade up to put themselves in position to draft the former Oregon star.
Separating truth from fiction is almost impossible at this point. The Tennessee Titans currently have the No. 2 overall pick, and any trade they make with the Chargers or Eagles would likely involve a swapping of picks and a starting quarterback — either Philip Rivers or Sam Bradford. Of course, it was reported on Tuesday that the Chargers are not trading Rivers. Chip Kelly has also gone to great lengths publicly to convince us that he did not acquire Bradford as trade bait.
As we know, one or more people or teams are lying. Mariota’s camp could simply be trying to create more buzz in order to assure that he doesn’t fall past No. 2 in the draft, while the Eagles and Charges could be playing coy about their intentions.
Beyond San Diego and Philadelphia, there have been reports that the Cleveland Browns are seriously interested in Mariota and have chatted with the Washington Redskins about moving up in the draft. In other words, half the NFL is supposedly interested in Mariota, who is only going to wind up with one team. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to which team that will be.
The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders have big plans for a $1.7 billion football stadium in Los Angeles. How big? We’re talking lightning bolts and fire.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the two teams presented a concept to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities — which is comprised of six NFL team owners — earlier this week. The modern-looking design includes a number of jaw-dropping features, one of which involves lightning bolts for the Chargers and fire for the Raiders.
A signature element of the design is a 115- to 120-foot tower that rises through and extends above the main concourse. It would serve as a pedestal for a cauldron that would change depending on the team. When the Chargers play, simulated lightning bolts would swirl behind glass encasing the tower and, if the team were to score a touchdown, a bolt would shoot out of the top. For Raiders games, a flame would burn in the cauldron in honor of legendary team owner Al Davis.
The proposal also notes that the tower could be turned into a giant Lombardi Trophy if the stadium hosted a Super Bowl, which I’m sure appeals to the NFL. The LA Times article features several photos that are worth checking out, but this will give you an idea of the lightning concept.
If lightning bolts aren’t enough to make Philip Rivers’ reconsider his alleged stance, I’m not sure anything will be.
Photo: Fir0002/Flagstaffotos
Marcus Mariota ending up in a Chargers uniform and Philip Rivers being traded to the Titans seems like a realistic possibility the more we’re hearing about things.
Earlier this week, UT San Diego’s Kevin Acee argued that the Chargers should trade Rivers, who is under contract with them for one more season. He said Rivers does not want to move to Los Angeles, which is where the franchise appears to be heading. Instead, Rivers prefers to be traded to the Tennessee Titans.
On Thursday, Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole said the Chargers are willing to trade Rivers to Tennessee for the No. 2 overall pick in the upcoming draft, which would likely enable them to select Mariota.
“Sources indicate that the San Diego Chargers will ultimately make a deal with the Tennessee Titans for the No. 2 overall pick,” Cole said on “Inside Buzz.”
An interesting part about Cole’s report is that he says the Chargers would also have to include their first-round pick (No. 17 overall) in the deal, whereas Acee thought the team would be able to keep it. Cole also says the Chargers are not willing to pay Rivers on a long-term deal after his current contract expires because they are worried about his long-term health.
Though Rivers is as tough as they come and has not missed a regular season game since 2006, he has taken a beating and quietly played through multiple serious injuries throughout his career. The Chargers have a much better understanding of the beating his endured than anyone else and would be justified in having concerns about his health over the next few years.
