With all the nuts running around Comic Con this weekend, maybe you had lunch with Batman, or the Green Lantern, or Darth Vader. Sounds like fun. But for me? Well, I tend to choose my lunch dates a little more carefully.
Superheroes may do it for you, but I’m looking for Super Bowls. I like to spend my afternoon meals with real men. Men of substance. Men who are referred to as “real” geniuses. Men who, believe it or not, can actually bring laughter to the table from time-to-time.
So when Chargers Coach Norv Turner invited me and perhaps another 15 or so members of the local media to lunch late last week, I readily accepted. What would Norv cook up?
(Answer: the Bolts provided fruit, strawberry yogurt, chicken sliders, mini-burgers, chips, and even a few rolled tacos with guacamole.)
Then Norv served up 45 minutes or so of insight on his wounded team, the one still smarting from a shocking loss to the New York Jets in last year’s AFC Divisional Playoff in the very same stadium at which we all shared a quaint meal Thursday afternoon.
An upbeat Norv talked in glowing terms about the Bolts’ off-season, glossing nicely over the fact that star players like Marcus McNeill and Vincent Jackson are gone for now, and others like LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Cromartie and Jamal Williams are gone for good.
The Coach even stated, rather matter-of-factly, that the upcoming 2010 edition of the Chargers — which officially begins training camp today when rookies report – has a chance to be the best team that he has guided since arriving in San Diego as the new head man four years ago.
Well, what were we expecting?
That Norv would tell us that the loss to the Jets crushed forever his spirit and that of his team? That the exits of LT and Cro and Jamal would be impossible to overcome? That the holdouts of McNeill and Jackson would cripple any remaining chances the Bolts had of returning to the playoffs?
Of course not. What many of us were not expecting, however, was a comfortable, cool and actually rather engaging Coach Turner, who though never exactly 100-percent at ease with the press in the past, seems to be working hard to improve his public persona. (His table manners, by the way, need no improving; they were impeccable).
This Norv, in fact, was actually quite funny, sprinkling in solid and unforced one-liners throughout the entire affair. When asked what he thought of the local media’s coverage of him and his team, Turner paused for affect, then let out a self-effacing chuckle before answering.
“You want me to tell you guys,” he queried, “the same things I tell my wife about it?” Laughter all around.
Of course, dealing with having to replace both McNeill and Jackson, at least for now, is no laughing matter. “Of course, I’d love to have there here with us,” he said.
Then he talked up the potential of his replacements, veteran Tra Thomas and Brandyn Dombrowski at left tackle and Legedu Naanee and Buster Davis at wide receiver.
“These guys are getting the chance of a lifetime,” he noted as he wiped a bit of mayo off his lower lip.
The running game, one of the worst in football last season (hey! bite your lip!), was something Turner said he spent a lot of his off-season thinking about. Some changes will be made in the way the Chargers attack, and some additional tinkering will be done beyond that. Norv remains excited about the potential of first-round draft pick Ryan Matthews and said that fullback Mike Tolbert will get more opportunities to carry the ball.
“People like to talk about our window of opportunity closing soon, but I don’t look at it that way at all,” Norv said. “We have a lot of young players who have been here for a couple of seasons that will be just starting to come into their own. And, of course, it all starts at quarterback where we still have one of the best players in the league.”
No doubt about that. Having Philip Rivers around can help make even the most over-cooked of the batch of chicken sliders go down easy. On the other hand, the Bolts’ performance last year on defense didn’t always look as if it was served up by Master Chefs.
This season, however, Norv thinks the addition of rookies like nose tackle Cam Thomas, linebacker Donald Butler and safety Darrell Stuckey will add some spice to the defensive concoctions of Coach Ron Rivera.
“We were good quite a bit last season on defense,” Turner said. “But we weren’t always consistently good. We’ve added some exciting athletes that I believe will help us create some more big plays and help us get more stops. Again, there’s an opportunity for these new players to have an impact.”
Time will tell us whether or not they do. Time will also be needed to tell us whether or not all of the new ingredients will come together to form a championship-winning recipe.
The bad taste of the Jets’ loss still lingers, and Norv know that it won’t be going away anytime soon.
“We’ll beat somebody good during the regular season this year,” he wryly noted, “and all of you will still be wondering about how we’re going to do in the playoffs.
“We expect that. We know that’s the way it’s going to be. A lot of people still put the blame (for the playoff loss last season) on Nate Kaeding (who missed three field goals against New York). But, like I told Nate, there were a lot of mistakes in that game in a lot of different areas.
“We hope to get to the post season again this season. And when we do, Nate will have to prove himself all over again. But he won’t be alone. We’ll all have to prove ourselves all over again.”
Not funny. Just the truth.
– Ello
Craig Elsten -
Chainsaw -
