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The San Diego Chargers aren’t even on the clock yet and they’re already getting snubbed. This time, however, it’s not the sports media who focus almost exclusively on New York, New England and Washington DC teams (east coast, in other words). No, this time the sports writers aren’t snubbing our Bolts, although that will come after the draft frenzy has died down, this time it’s a 23-year-old quarterback and his father.
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Now why, you ask, would a southern gentleman snub an entire football team and ask them not to draft his son? Cash, pure and simple. Or, more to the point, the lack thereof. Eli Manning can make millions more hawking furniture in New York than he can in San Diego. San Diego’s car dealerships can’t pay as much as a dealership in Queens. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking it has anything to do with the Chargers’ record. No, our Bolts are not tearing up the win column. But the acquisitions they’ve made this off-season are putting them in the right direction. If record had anything to do with a draft pick’s choice of teams to get drafted by, no one would ever draft a big name player who did not have a playoff season the year before. Kind of puts the entire concept of the draft helping the more talent-poor teams even the field in question, doesn’t it?
No, it is all about cash.
One may question why the Chargers went public with the announcement. It had to have been embarrassing for the team to admit a top draft pick didn’t want to play for them. The answer: they want to force New York’s hand. New York knows the Chargers won’t draft a player that doesn’t want to play for them…but there are still two more teams between New York and Eli. The Giants will give the Chargers what they want, and what they want is New York’s second round pick and either next year’s second or Ike Hilliard or, preferably, both.
Then, the Chargers can probably swing a deal of slightly lesser value with Cleveland to get the Browns’ second round pick and, possibly, a player, and get the quarterback they really want, Philip Rivers, and enough picks to stock a team in one year that it would take other teams three years to acquire.
So, by Eli seeking that fat deal to hawk Mounds bars on Fifth Avenue, the Chargers get exactly what they want without having to take too much of Dean Spanos’ children’s inheritance from them. It’s a win-win scenario for all concerned.
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