To gauge how this Chargers thing is playing out nationally, far beyond the calming but continual hand-wringing in San Diego County, I called NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw.
The Fox NFL Sunday analyst and four-time Super Bowl winner as quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers is the game’s ultimate straight shooter. Wishy-washy? Nope. Diplomatic? Nah. Mince words? Never.
So, Terry, what about the Chargers?
“How much money do you need, buddy?” Bradshaw said of team Chairman Dean Spanos. “You’re the only dance in town in San Diego. You know how many people in the country want to move to San Diego? It’s friggin’ beautiful.
“I understand the money side of it, but how much money do you need?”
Some would argue — and rightly, to a degree — that Bradshaw’s view is slathered with enough naïveté to pack the front row of a Taylor Swift concert. After all, it’s not his money. But it’s also the kind of simple question asked by fans unable to understand why more always seems to matter.
Chargers stadium: Complete coverage
Bradshaw knows America’s Finest City … and its team. He played the Chargers nine times during his career, winning the first six during the team’s dynasty-cementing run in the heart of the 1970s.
In his first meeting with the Chargers in 1971, Bradshaw ran 5 yards for the winning score in a 21-17 final at Three Rivers Stadium. The next season, he engineered a 24-2 victory at San Diego Stadium with the only points coming on a sack of Bradshaw to open the scoring.
At 67, the free-wheeling, smile-generating television analyst also stays tightly in tune with the evolving game — on and off the field.
Bradshaw can figure out modern-day blitz packages, but struggles to decipher the decision-making swirling around the NFL’s blitz toward unprecedented profits while cities wrestle with an escalating facilities race.
“The rich get richer, man,” he said. “The NFL gets more powerful. Bigger and bigger. There’s Jerry World (in Dallas), then (Rams owner Stan) Kroenke World (in Inglewood). What’s next, (Patriots owner Robert) Kraft World?
“It’s fun to watch them spend all that money, though.”
A warning from Bradshaw: Be cautious of greener grass.
“I would think the Rams would dominate the L.A. (football) market,” he said. “The Rams already have an identity in Los Angeles. The Chargers don’t. They’ve got a fan base right where they are.
“I know you use things for leverage to get those big, fancy stadiums. But they did that in St. Louis with the Rams and now, 20 years later, it’s not good enough.”
To Bradshaw, history should be consulted — along with the army of accountants and architects.
“I would not want to share a complex with anybody,” he said. “You’ve got the Giants and Jets (Met Life Stadium in New Jersey). Where else does it work? Is anyone else sharing a stadium? No, I don’t think so.”
The Chargers would be an ill fit, Bradshaw contended, even though he believes the on-field product trumps the Rams’ roots.
San Diego staggered to a 4-12 record last season, tied for 30th in the 32-team league. The Rams, he said, provide even less reason to feel jacked up about game day. To find the franchise’s last winning season, you need to rewind all the way back to 2003.
“The Chargers’ style of play is more entertaining,” Bradshaw said. “I know the record, but they’ve got Philip Rivers. He can play. They still have some of that Air Coryell in them.
“Watch the Rams play. It’s the same Rams that left (L.A. two decades ago), ball control, on the ground. It’s Todd Gurley. (Coach) Jeff Fisher is defensive guy. He’s still trying to find a quarterback.”
There are times Bradshaw comes off as your goofy uncle at the family reunion. The more he talks, though, the more sense much of it makes.
Bradshaw’s take on how the Chargers can win back a city fractured by the L.A. flirtations: “Can’t compete? Draft better.”
The care and watering of an NFL team involves navigating a two-way street, however. There’s short-term public money decisions, but Bradshaw countered that those decisions need weighed against long-term impacts.
No one wins in a vacuum. San Diego and the Chargers must work together in the same way Bradshaw leaned on “Mean” Joe Greene, Franco Harris, Jack Ham and Lynn Swann.
“The politicians of San Diego need to realize that nothing brings more prestige and recognizability to a city than an NFL franchise,” he said. “I would not want to lose the Chargers to Los Angeles. San Diego is just too good of a market.
“I think it’s a good sign, though, that the owners decided to stay another year.”
There’s always a silver lining, right?
“Hey, look at the Raiders,” Bradshaw said. “They’re worse off than you guys.”
Well, maybe not a silver-and-black lining.
On Twitter: @Bryce_A_Miller
