Chargers Season

The pace of feminine eye-rolling increases in our house as the Chargers’ season approaches, and it’s nearing the point that I’m beginning to fear for my wife’s ocular survival. The Chargers open tomorrow against the Bears.

After the debacle against the Patriots last year at Qualcomm Stadium I blogged that Marty Schottenheimer should be fired because he had failed to provide the leadership that was needed and deserved by a highly talented group of football players. Specifically, while he was a genius at football strategy and in developing individual talent, he had no skill at melding those individuals into a cohesive whole. All of his teams displayed that same lack and, as groups of talented individuals rather than tightly knit teams, regularly failed in the big games.

Schottenheimer has been replaced by Norv Turner, who has a mixed record as a head coach, but I have been pleased and excited by the choice for a number of reasons. Most of those reasons revolve around the mechanics of football and I won’t go into them here, but one reason was simply that A.J. Smith picked him and that man has made very few mistakes. It was Smith that assembled the incredible array of on-field talent that fills the Chargers roster. What I’ve been waiting to see is indications that Turner can be the leader that these outstanding young men need to bring them together into a single team in the Lombardi model.

There was a small item in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune that suggest that he might. Not much was made of it, just a little tidbit tacked onto the end of a larger article. It may, however, be the best thing yet that I have read about Norv Turner. It’s in two parts.

For the first time in several years, the Chargers will stay in a local hotel the night before home games.

This is a step in the direction of teamwork. It focuses the players on the task at hand and brings them to game day free of distractions of family and household issues. It also brings them together as a team. I don’t know how many teams do this, but I think it is a terrific idea.

Asked if he heard any resistance from veteran players, Turner quipped,
“I didn't ask.”

And that is precisely the kind of leadership these fine young men need.