Fires leave Chargers uncertain in Arizona
The San Diego Chargers boarded a plane Tuesday night for Phoenix, not knowing where or when they’ll play their next game.
They left town because of wildfires that chased many in the organization out of their homes, fouled the air and left Sunday’s scheduled home game against the Houston Texans in doubt.
Running back LaDainian Tomlinson knows his home survived the fires. General Manager A.J. Smith hasn’t heard if he’ll have a house to come home to.
The Chargers will practice at the Arizona Cardinals’ headquarters in Tempe today, Thursday and Friday. They packed for any eventuality, since the NFL and the Chargers are still debating what to do about Sunday’s game.
Qualcomm Stadium is being used as an evacuation center. An estimated 10,000 people were there on Tuesday, under smoky skies.
Tomlinson and his wife had to flee their suburban home early Monday.
“I could see the fires coming,” said Tomlinson, the reigning NFL most valuable player. “You wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning. You get the phone call, ‘You need to evacuate.’ I see the sky was orange, so I’m like, ‘It’s serious.’ ”
Some 46 players, coaches and staff members had to evacuate, including Coach Norv Turner and quarterback Philip Rivers.
Rivers said smoke was coming under the doors of his suburban home, and he and his wife and three young daughters got out before the evacuation orders came. He said his house was OK.
“It was scary,” Rivers said. “A lot of us haven’t experienced it. A lot of us were not here in 2003. It’s such an unknown too. You don’t know what it’s doing.”
The NFL moved to speed up its draft during owners’ meetings at Philadelphia.
The owners also discussed having the Buffalo Bills play regular-season games in Toronto, expanding the reach of the NFL Network and moving the Pro Bowl.
The time between picks in the first round will be cut from 15 minutes to 10 to help speed up a process that went a record 6 hours 8 minutes last April.
Owners considered a proposal that would have the Bills playing one home game a season in Toronto. In other developments:
Commissioner Roger Goodell said owners are considering changing the date and site of the Pro Bowl, although no vote was taken.
The commissioner and Dallas owner Jerry Jones emphasized they are committed to the NFL Network even though a long-running dispute with three of the nation’s biggest cable companies has limited its reach to 35 million homes instead of the 50 million the league expected at this point.
The NFL reduced the amount of money each team can borrow by $30 million, or a fifth, as a matter of fiscal prudence.
Rookie Trent Edwards will remain Buffalo’s starting quarterback, Coach Dick Jauron said. . . . St. Louis released offensive guard Claude Terrell after he was arrested and charged with assaulting his wife at a suburban Houston hotel.
Jacksonville quarterback David Garrard had an MRI exam on his sprained left ankle. He suffered the injury in Monday night’s loss to Indianapolis. More will be known today. . . . Atlanta cut starting defensive tackle Grady Jackson.