The Worm Turns

Kevin Acee is a local sportswriter who has been defending the Chargers management against charges by the fans of incompetence and ennui due to consistent failure to make the playoffs. He claimed, for instance, that Norv Turner was an outstanding head coach and that A.J. Smith was the best general manager in the league.

Now he is turning against them for reasons which are not entirely clear. Last week he was castigating the team for not agreeing to renew Eric Weddle’s $6 million/year contract a full year before it expired because Weddle is, he said, entitled to “a sense of financial security going forward.”  Seriously?

Weddle has already been paid $34 million, and if he hasn’t been able to turn that into “a sense of financial security”  that certainly is not the fault of the San Diego Chargers. I’m not sure what kind of money the Union-Tribune is paying Kevin Acee that he does not instinctively understand that, and does not recognize that if Eric Weddle cannot find financial security in having been paid $34 million then he is not going to find it in any amount the Chargers are going to be willing to cough up.

Now he is accusing the Chargers of disloyalty to San Diego because he thinks they have “quit”  on the effort to build a new stadium and keep the team in this city. They have, admittedly, not had much to say regarding the committee’s proposal to spend $1.4 billion for a new stadium in Mission Valley, which may simply be because they don’t want to expose themselves as idiots and drive their stockholders away.

I guess that, based on the headline, I’m calling Kevin Acee a worm which, coming from me, would actually be a compliment, but I suppose we do have to remember that Acee’s attitude changed when the Union-Tribune was purchased by and merged with the Los Angeles Times. There may be a reason why he suddenly became less averse to the team moving to our northern neighbor.