Chargers Are Not a Big Draw
If the San Diego Chargers were expecting a large crowd filled with fans from Los Angeles for their first full day of workouts at the Home Depot Center in Carson on Wednesday, they had to be disappointed.
About 24 people watched the Chargers’ morning workout, which mainly featured a conditioning test for rookies and selected veterans. About 75 fans showed up for the afternoon practice.
“Are we in L.A.?” San Diego starting quarterback Drew Brees joked after the team’s second workout. “We’re just kind of right outside L.A. or a little close to Orange County, right? But it really doesn’t matter. I’m just glad to be playing football. Today couldn’t have been a better day. Everyone complained about the smog and everything before we got here, but it was pretty nice to me.”
The weather conditions for the Chargers’ first full day of training camp was near perfect. An overcast sky kept the players cool in the morning and a slight breeze kept them fresh in the afternoon.
The Chargers didn’t even have to deal with any rowdy Oakland Raider fans, who travel to San Diego every season and root for the silver and black.
“I think that it would be great if L.A. fans adopted us as their home team,” Brees said. “It would be great to get all those Raider fans out of there. We’re closer to L.A. than Oakland, so they might as well be Charger fans.”
Based on Wednesday’s lackluster crowd, that may take a while.
“I want L.A. to be able to identify with us,” Brees said. “The more people we can get out here and watch us practice, the better. They’ll see how hard we work and the amount of fun we’re having competing against each other. We want to tie that in with fans. It would be great to have fans cheering when we throw a touchdown pass or make a great play.”
For Coach Marty Schottenheimer, his main priority is molding a winning team, and in order to do that, he’s going to make his players work.
That was evident with the Chargers’ morning conditioning tests. Although the team did not punish any player who struggled, Schottenheimer’s coaching staff got a chance to judge how well some worked out during the off-season.
“[The players] were alerted that we were going to do this back in June, and I was interested in seeing how we would compete,” said Schottenheimer, whose Chargers finished 8-8 last season after a 6-1 start. “I knew that everybody was not going to pass the test, but I told them that no one would have to take the test a second time.... We just wanted to see how the players competed.”
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The Chargers’ top two draft choices signed contracts before Wednesday’s workouts. Cornerback Sammy Davis, a first-round pick from Texas A&M;, agreed to a seven-year deal and cornerback Drayton Florence, selected in the second round from Tuskegee, signed a five-year deal.
Safety Terrence Kiel, the team’s second choice in the second round, signed a six-year deal Wednesday night. Kiel is recovering from three gunshot wounds suffered during an attempted carjacking in Houston on July 4.
He is expected to miss the first month of training camp while recovering from a broken leg.