With the Chargers leaving San Diego for good after this minicamp, they’ll begin a few years of waiting to move into a permanent home.
But quarterback Philip Rivers want to make sure everyone knows that can’t be an excuse for the team.
“I can’t imagine it will,” Rivers told Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Because we’re gonna know. When we get to camp on July 30th or whenever, we’re gonna have known now for almost seven months. So, it’s not like it’s a middle of the night move and everybody’s saying, ‘What are we doing?’
“So, I think everybody should be pretty settled in by the time training camp starts.”
When that happens, they’ll be in a new facility in Costa Mesa. And they’ll be playing home games in a 30,000-seat soccer stadium in Carson. Even things as seemingly simple as flying out of a new airport (Long Beach) will become an issue for a group of people engrained in a business as routine-driven as professional football.
But Rivers isn’t letting it serve as a distraction.
“Right now, it’s none,” he said. “Right now — again, I’m not being insensitive to all that’s gone on here in San Diego – but for us, as we stand right now, this right now is normal.”
Of course, there’s very little normal about this process, but Rivers also is responsible for sending messages. If he lets it be known this is all a big pain, then that’s going to trickle down to the rest of the roster.