NFL waits, while San Diego burns
Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 1:30 PM
Southern California is burning. The federal government has declared a state of emergency, Governor Ah-nold has called out the National Guard, hundreds of thousands of residents have been forced to flee their homes, more than a thousand homes and businesses have been consumed by the flames.
What am I missing? What did I forget?
Oh, yes. Now I remember. There’s also a football game Sunday in Qualcomm Stadium, which at the moment is occupied by evacuees from the fires.
And as of Tuesday afternoon, the NFL still hadn’t moved the game to somewhere a little more sensible, like Phoenix, where the Chargers went to practice and where the Cardinals’ home park is available on Sunday, thanks to a bye week.
The Cards’ stadium is booked Sunday for another event. But if it can be played Monday, then that’s what they should do. That’s what the Chargers did in 2003 when another fire went through town.
There are other issues involved, but most of them relate to money, money and, of course, money. There’s a game scheduled and tickets have been sold. The game is against Houston, and the Chargers can’t swap home dates with the Texans because they don’t play each other again this season. If the game is moved to Phoenix, even Monday night, what happens to the thousands or tens of thousands of ticket holders who can’t get to the game?
The team – and the league – has the money and doesn’t want to give it back. If I were them, I wouldn't want to, either. If the game is moved, that money is gone forever.
And there’s a good chance that San Diego will be out of danger by Sunday, if only because most areas that can burn already have, and the fires are being driven north by the Santa Ana winds. Technically speaking, the Chargers can come back to their homes – if they still have them – and they can play the game in Qualcomm. But because you can play a game in the stadium on Sunday doesn’t mean you should.
But it’s not as if everything’s going to be back to normal by Sunday. There is massive dislocation and an enormous clean-up job ahead. One thing San Diego probably doesn’t need is a football game and all the traffic that goes with it, further clogging the strained infrastructure.
It’s also presumptuous in the extreme to expect the local police, who have probably been pulling double and triple shifts all week, to show up to direct traffic and oversee security at a football game that doesn’t need to be played in San Diego this Sunday.
The fans who were not affected by the fires will be ticked off. But it’s also the decent thing to do for the fans who won’t be able to get there because of the fire. I know it’s a lot of money, but just refund it to the fans. They can use it more at this point than the league can.
But the NFL was holding to its wait-and-see policy. It could move the game – but only if developments during the week show that’s necessary.
Give me a break. There have been enough developments already to make the only decision that makes sense, the only one that treats players, fans, public safety personnel and especially the citizens of San Diego fairly.
That is to move the game now.
People talk about tragedies and acts of nature putting life into perspective. But that’s not really what happens. Rather, it makes you realize what your priorities are. In San Diego, the priority isn’t a football game, it’s cleaning up.
