Kaspers Korner

The San Diego Chargers were one of the favoritesd to win the AFC West, and maybe even the Superbowl.

With barely squeaking a win out against against the Oakland Raiders the Chargers are clearly in trouble.

The Chargers have talent on both sides of the football, but for whatever reason they cannot put it together.

The problem for the Chargers is that after this year they will start losing some young core players whose rookie contracts are coming up after this year.

Could that actually be a good thing?

It can if they rebuild their defensive line as they need a new nose tackle and defensive ends.

In the end changes must be made to not just the coaches, but to players as well.

The San Diego Chargers looking for a new stadium for a while now.

With Los Angeles building their own stadium Chargers fans are not helping their cause to keep them.

The Chargers had high hopes going into the seasin, which is typical for a team with a franchise quarterback.

That usually translates to the team selling out their games in advance.

That is not the case as the Chargers has still not sold out their game at home this Sunday.

It is understandable why as the economy is bad and people are having to cutback on stuuff.

The fact is that the Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers sell out their games all the time, and they are a small market teams.

In the end if Chargers fans don’t start selling out more games then sooner or later the Chargers will be gone.

The San Diego Chargers have been selected to go to the Superbowl for several years now.

This year that is not going to happen as their defense is not the same now.

The Chargers lost nose tackle Jamal Williams for the year as the team placed Williams on injured reserve last month after injuring his triceps muscle.

Last year the Chargers were only allowing teams to rush for 102 yards, but this year without Williams they are giving up over 150 yards a game.

In the end the loss of Williams is too much for the team to keep winning.

San Diego Chargers outside linebacker Shawne Merriman is in a lot of trouble for allegedly assaulting and falsly imprisoning Tila Tequila Nguyen.

After reading the reports Merriman did the right thing.

According to 10News.com, via ProfootballTalk.com that according to sources Teguila was drunk when she stumbled on Merriman in a bedroom with two other woman.

Merriman then asked Tequila to join in, but she instead got angry and threatened to have sex with one of Merriman’s entourage.
She then took off her clothes and proceeded to leave the house.

As she was leaving Merriman stepped in and prevented her from leaving, which she then called 911.

Tequila tried to fake a neck injury, but when paramedics checked her out they found that she was okay.

Clearly Tequila is trying to take the attention away from the fact that she tried to commit a crime by indecently exposing herself.

With sources confirming that she was indeed intoxicated the whole case as shaky as one has to question was there really ever battery taking place.

If there was it was most likely due to self defense as she was probably attacking Merriman to get out of the house.

With the police completing its investigation it is now in the hands of the District Attorney.

In the end if anything happens it will be Tequila that will be arrested for filing a false report on Merriman.

The San Diego Chargers took a big step in retaining their core of players by signing quarterback Phillip Rivers to a contract extension.

However, they still have a long way to go as they still have nine starters they need to sign to contract extensions.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chargers have linebackers Shawne Merriman and Tim Dobbins, left tackle Marcus McNeil, and wide receivers Vincent Jackson and Chris Chambers contracts expiring after the 2009 season.

Then after the 2010 season they have tight end Antonio Gates, linebacker Stephen Cooper, cornerback Antonio Cromartie, safety Eric Weddle, and nose tackle Jamal Williams contacts expiring.

Obviously, they will not be able to keep all of them as there is just not enough salary cap space to do so.

So, who is the most likely candidates to walk after the 2009 season?
The most likely candidates is Merriman and Chambers.

The Chargers drafted linebacker Larry English in the first round of this past April’s National Football League draft.

They are converting him from defensive end, which he played in college, to outside linebacker.

Merriman suffered a torn lateral collateral ligament and posterior cruciate ligaments in his knee, thus he most likely has lost some speed and that means he most likely will never be the same.

Chambers since coming over from the Miami Dolphins in a trade has been dissapointing as in two seasons he never caught more than 40 passes in 2007 or 2008.

His replacement will most likely be wide receiver Malcom Floyd as he caught 27 passes for 465 yards with four touchdowns in a limited role.

Floyd’s contract expires after the 2009 season, but resigning him should be easy as it should not take a lot of money.

In the end it is all guess work until we get to the end of the season and see who Chagers general manager AJ Smith extended.

Many players are asked to play hurt, which sometimes is a whole season as was the case for San Diego Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie.  When asked about the situation he went through last year Cromartie’s assessment of it is right on.

Cromartie played all of last year with a broken hip that obviously affected his play.

He was quoted in the San Diego Union-Tribune saying, “I need to make better decisions on how I play hurt.  I should have shut it down for a few weeks and let it get better. … If that happens again I will just sit out.”

Cromartie is right as time and time again players are asked to play hurt when they should be sitting down and resting.

First, when a player is hurt and is still playing that portion of the body is weakend and with one good blow to the area the injury will only be much worst than what it was at first.

Second, usually when a player is hurt his level of performance is not what it was before, and usually his backup is usually better, but for some reason coaches want players to play hurt,

Finally, opposing coaching staffs watch so much film on thier opponents that they know when something is wrong and will then start game planning around this development.

In the end players need to stand up for themselves and tell their coaches that they are hurt and need to sit, because after all it is their body and they live the rest of their lives with it.

The San Diego Chargers are loaded with talent, which lead them to the playoffs the last couple of seasons.  The end results of those seasons have brought the Chargers back to Earth.

The Chargers the last couple of seasons have been one of the favorites to win the Superbowl.

However, for one reason or another they always seem to fall short of that.

Chargers quarterback Phillip Rivers went on record stating that the Chargers have been hyped up the last couple of seasons only to fall short, because of this Rivers is now ignoring what the media is saying about the team.

The quarterback is one of the leaers of a football team and when they speak the team will usually follow.

It is one thing to be self confident, but too much will leave a player, or a football team, exposed as they will sometimes not give it their all because of their ego.

With the Kansas City Chiefs hiring Scott Pioli as thier general managers, the Denver Broncos hiring Josh McDaniels to be their head coach, and Oakland Raiders quarterback Jamarcus Russel improving the Chargers need a full effort from everyone.

For if they don’t then they will be on the receiving end of a rude wake up call.

San Diego Chargers starting running back Ladanian Tomlinson has not played in the post season the last several years.  Tomlinson is foolish for refusing to reduce his role.

According to Pro Football Talk.com Tomlinson is refusing to take a pay cut.  The reason being is that he does not want his salary to be lower than back up Darren Sproles who is set to make around $6.6 million this year, because he was franchised tag.

Simply, Tomlison is foolish he has eight years in the league in which he has carried the ball for more than 300 times each year except last year, which was 292.

After that many years in the league a running backs body starts to break down.  Even the great running backs like Thurman Thomas and Emmitt Smith started to break down after eight years.

If Tomlinson is not willing to take a pay cut, then he is going to find himself without a job.

Malcom Floyd WR restricted

Kynan Forney G unrestricted resigned two year $4.8 million
Mike Goff G unrestricted

Cletis Gordon CB restricted

Marques Harris LB unrestricted

Jeremy Newberry C unrestricted

Igor Olshansky DE unrestricted signed with Cowboys four years $18 million eight million guaranteed.
Darren Sproles RB unrestricted franchised by team

The San Diego Chargers are working to try and get a deal done with the city of Chula Vista.  The situation is getting nowhere and the Chargers could be on their last legs with the city.

On January 29, 2009 the San Diego Union Tribune reported that Chula Vista mayor Cheryl Cox sent a letter to the Chargers that blasted them for keeping the public in the dark.

The problem with that is the mayor and the Chargers met on January 16th over an hour for that very reason.

Chargers general counsel Mark Fabiani stated that the letter is bizzare and they will move forward on the project.

Then things turned for the worst for Charger fans as the Chargers hired a the Wasserman Marketing Group to market the Chargers in Los Angeles.

The move was to bring in additional revenue, since Los Angeles has no team.

The problem is that the move now may be nothing, but if the Chargers cannot get anything done in Chula Vista, along with a market for the Chargers in Los Angeles, then it is good bye for the Chargers in San Diego.

So, if mayor Cox wants to keep her job she better get something done.