The Chargers are dead to me.
I root for them to lose.
Many San Diegans have voiced such disdain since the NFL team’s relocation nine years ago.
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Now we have coach Jim Harbaugh leading the Los Angeles Chargers into San Diego for two days of training camp for the second summer in a row, the team bus rolling onto the University of San Diego campus on a gray Tuesday morning.
Harbaugh answered reporters’ questions before the practice. Such as this one:
What would Harbaugh tell the San Diegans who supported the franchise during its 51 years in the city, but no longer feel the urge to bolt up?
“Oh, we love ‘em,” the coach said.
“All Southern California,” he added.
“Geography. Whatnot. This is, uh — a lot of people in our organization, including me, still have homes here in San Diego,” added Harbaugh, a former Bolts QB who coached at USD. “We’re excited to be here.”
At 62, Harbaugh is similar in age to many San Diegans who swore off the team after it moved to Greater Los Angeles.
More often, it’s the younger San Diegans who embrace the now-Los Angeles Chargers.
When team chairman Dean Spanos announced the L.A. venture in January 2017, younger San Diegans were less invested in the Chargers than local elders who, year after year, bought game tickets and Bolts merchandise.
Tuesday, young adults made up the crowd’s majority at Torero Stadium.
As a mariachi band played in a plaza above the sunken stadium, fans posed for photographs in front of a Chargers logo banner. They walked by a three-dimensional “Bolt Up” cubic array, and paused in front of cutouts of Chargers stars Derwin James and Khalil Mack before heading to merchandise racks and food trucks.
They filled up more than half of Torero Stadium, which seats about 5,000.
Reminding us that the Spanoses’ amazing quarterback luck accompanied the move north nine years ago, dozens of fans wore Justin Herbert jerseys.
The Chargers drafted Herbert sixth overall six years ago, the result of losing most of their games the previous year and seeing only one other quarterback, Joe Burrow, drafted in the top five.
An NFL star despite his 0-3 record in the playoffs, the rifle-armed Herbert has kept the L.A. Chargers from being swallowed up in a mega-market where the Dodgers and Lakers command a 365-day spotlight.
Amid Tuesday’s Chargers celebration, the 51-year San Diego era felt worlds apart.
For me, the Los Angeles Chargers do not extend a Chargers tradition. They feel more like their own franchise.
This, despite the occasional 55, 21 and 85 jerseys among the spectators, in honor of Hall of Famers Junior Seau, LaDainian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates.
And despite the team honoring former San Diego linebacker Billy Ray Smith, who died last week at age 64. Chargers players wore helmet decals with Smith’s initials, and a moment of silence preceded the practice.
If two brief summer visits from the L.A. Chargers constitute a rapprochement between a franchise and its former home of five decades, it’s no surprise that Harbaugh had a big say in making it happen.
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He began his head coaching career at USD, a place he describes with near-reverence.
Harbaugh was asked what motivated Chargers leaders to relocate part of training camp some 120 miles, from One Chargers Way in El Segundo to breezy Alcala Park.
“Just wanted to, yeah,’ Harbaugh said. “Just really wanted to. The organization wanted to. The Spanoses want to. A lot of us, as I mentioned before.”
Herbert, who would’ve been more popular in San Diego than any Charger ever was had the franchise stayed, called it a really cool trip.
“I’ve really enjoyed it, especially this year,’ he said. “We’re so thankful to ownership for allowing us to come down here and spend a couple of days and really be a part of San Diego.
“To be able to play down in San Diego, with so much culture and history, especially with the Chargers — it’s a really great experience for everyone, young guys, old guys,” added Herbert, 28. “A lot of the new guys really don’t know Charger history.”
The young adults who have embraced the Los Angeles Chargers may have picked a great time to do it.
The AFC is down, and Harbaugh has guided the franchise to consecutive postseasons, something last done by Norv Turner in 2007-08.
San Diego’s anti-Bolts schadenfreude crowd, for its part, hasn’t gone hungry.
These folks have reveled in the L.A. Chargers’ lopsided playoff defeats in New England, Houston and New England again last January.
They’ve cheered as either the Chiefs or Broncos have won the eight AFC West races, beating L.A., denying it any home playoff games.
Now, Harbaugh has his best Chargers team yet. Wisely, he hired a very promising offensive coordinator last winter in Mike McDaniel, who’s steeped in the Shanahan-McVay system and has a knack for up-tempo offense.
This should be a fascinating year. A great coach who has stars at the most important spots. vs. the “Chargering” tradition.
The Super Bowl will be played in the $5.5-billion Kroenke Dome shared by the Rams and the Chargers.
Two questions to ponder:
If the journey ahead were to go as the Spanoses and Harbaugh intend, will the Los Angeles Chargers bring the Lombardi Trophy down the Interstate 5 and to San Diego next summer?
And how many locals would show up?