A15
THE COAST NEWS
JAN. 4, 2013
S PORTS
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Chargers finish season with win, losing record By Tony Cagala
Chargers President Dean Spanos announces Monday the firings of head coach Norv Turner and general manager A.J. Smith. The move comes after the team’s losing record and a third consecutive year of missing the playoffs. Photo by Tony Cagala
Chargers president makes moves By Tony Cagala
SAN DIEGO — Even after being relieved of his duties as the San Diego Chargers head coach, for Norv Turner his final press conference was still about his team and football. An hour before meeting with the media Monday Turner would present several game balls to players that had an impact in the team’s last win of the season, including one to veteran linebacker Takeo Spikes, who was ejected from the game in the first half of Sunday’s game against the Raiders after engaging in a scuffle with Raiders running back Mike Goodson. “I told our guys it was going to be a fight, and you play the Raiders it’s a fight and he took it a little more literal than I wish he would have. But it’s what he’s all about,” Turner said. Finishing the season with a 9-7 record and missing the postseason again, Chargers President Dean Spanos was compelled to make a change. On Monday, following weeks of speculation that Turner and general manager A.J. Smith would be fired, Spanos made it official. “I met with them both this morning, and I thanked them both for their dedication and their commitment to try to win a world championship here,” Spanos said. “Obviously we didn’t get there. I knew at the beginning of the season that if we didn’t get into the playoffs and win some games that I was probably going to have to make this decision.” Spanos added that he’s now looking forwards, and will be consulting with Ron Wolf to help find a new general manager and head coach. The team will be looking to hire a new general manager before hiring a head coach. Spanos said they’ve already sent consent letters out to potential candidates and that
they hope to start interviewing this week. As for a personality type that Spanos might be looking for in their new hires: “Anybody that can win,” he said. Having a chance to look back, Turner said his time as head coach of the Chargers has been a lot of fun.“The last three years have been an awful lot of work because…we continuously had changing lineups. That’s the hardest thing on a coach. We’ve lost a lot of good players to injuries and free agency,” he added. Turner said the next coach and general manager will need to find a way to add more players so they can compete in this league. “Someone wrote three weeks ago that this team is not that far away from being a playoff team. I would disagree. I know the things that have to get done for that to happen. So if this team’s comes next year and they get some things done that help them get better and they are able to make the playoffs, I would hope it would be a surprise to all the Chargers fans and they would be excited about it. “And I would hope it’s not the expectation starting in August. Because I think you need to give whoever the guy who comes in here and the group he brings in some time to get this thing back where it was two or three years ago.” A.J. Smith, who’s been the general manager for 10 years, wasn’t available for comment. For Turner, the Del Mar resident said it was way too early to say what was next for him. As a coach, Turner said, you’re trying to change peoples’ lives. “I’ve got some time to think about what I want to do, but…I’ve got some time to coach. I still feel healthy and young, so we’ll just see what happens.”
SAN DIEGO — On one end of the Chargers locker room, above the doorway is stenciled the Latin phrase, “Nunc Coepi.” Its English translation, “Now We Begin,” is stenciled above the doorway on the opposite end. When head coach Norv Turner selected the phrase at the beginning of the season, there was optimism, excitement — even the expectations of going back to the postseason after missing out the previous two years. Before the season’s official end on Sunday with a 2421 win over the Raiders, the season had already been over for several weeks. Any optimism of a postseason appearance had turned to pessimism. Apathy had set in with the fan base when it became apparent the team would finish with a losing record; and the expectations of going to the playoffs shifted to the expectations of the firings of Turner and general manager A.J. Smith. Responding to whether he thought this was his last game as the head coach, Turner said he didn’t think his opinion mattered. He added: “We are going to meet tomorrow with the team, and I’m sure they’ll start looking for a new coach.” Because of the emotions, Turner kept his post game locker room speech short, opting instead to talk with his players in-depth Monday, but said that he told his team how much he appreciated them responding in the face of their situation — a situation that could have seen players quitting or pointing fingers. “On Mondays, it would have been easy for them to go along with the crowd and say, ‘I confess, he did it.’ They didn’t,” Turner said. “They always stood up and took coaching and acknowledged where they needed to get better.” Whatever happens with Turner or Smith, the team will be different next year. The roster is different every year, said quarterback Philip Rivers. “How different? I guess we’ll see,” he said. After 11 seasons, veteran cornerback Quentin Jammer believes this was his last game as a Charger. “It’s been a blessing,” he said. “I’ve been here long enough to see some great guys go. When you look at all the young guys that can flat out play, we have a good group of guys at safety. We’ll see what
Quentin Jammer (23) receives congratulations from Sean Cattouse after an interception in the Raiders end zone. Jammer believes the game was his last as a Charger. Photos by Bill Reilly
happens.” Regarding Turner, Jammer said: “I’ve been through a lot of great coaches. I will go on record and say that I really love and respect Norv Turner. He’s my favorite, and it was an honor to play for him if this is my last game here. We’ll see what the future holds.” Rivers seconded the sentiment, saying that it’s hard to understand how it all goes without being on the inside day in and day out. “There’s just a lot to be said about the way he’s (Turner) said and done everything. “Other than my dad, I don’t know that there’s ever been a coach that you’ve ever had so much respect and trust for,” Rivers said. “I think I can say that for a lot of the players, and I think eventually people on the outside will appreciate him and what he’s done here for six years.” While the win may help players feel good about how the season ended, veteran linebacker Takeo Spikes was left with an all together different feeling. In the second quarter, Spikes and Raiders running back Mike Goodson became locked up in a shoving match and grabbing each others’ facemasks. The tussle would extend far beyond the play and both players were ejected by referee John Parry. Parry explained that they were disqualified based on how long it took to break the two apart. “With the continuation
Takeo Spikes (51) is escorted off the field by tight end Randy McMichael after being ejected from the game in the second quarter.
of it and the amount of time that took place, that is why we disqualified them,” Parry said. Neither side was warned before the game, and, according to Parry, he wasn’t working under any directive from the leagues as
to how long a lock up should or could be before players would be ejected. The decision was based on Parry’s judgment. Spikes, in his 15-year career, had never been ejected from a game.
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