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Tom Krasovic: Chargers' return to San Diego just another practice for LA team

Tom Krasovic, The San Diego Union-Tribune on

Published in Football

SAN DIEGO — The Chargers practiced in San Diego on Tuesday for the first time since their relocation.

On the nostalgia meter, this was a zero.

Actually, this was a Jim Otto. A double zero.

The Chargers were in San Diego for 56 years. Now they’re in Los Angeles. The San Diego vibe has left the building.

The football team from L.A. seemed like interlopers when they took the field Tuesday at the University of San Diego’s Torero Stadium.

Never mind the familiar lightning bolt helmets and the blue and gold duds as they worked out on the grass field. Though players appreciated the freshening breezes and 72-degree comfort, San Diego is just another place to the guys who now play football for the Chargers.

It would’ve been different with Philip Rivers throwing passes or Antonio Gates catching them.

Or if Keenan Allen ran routes, LaDainian Tomlinson burst through the line, Junior Seau blasted someone or Eric Weddle jawed at the offense while quarterbacking the defense.

If Ron Dixon’s famed Chargers cannon had been rolled out Tuesday, memories from Mission Valley may have surfaced.

Boom. Touchdown, San Diego!

But that would’ve felt cheap.

They’re the Los Angeles Chargers — and have been for a while. They’re headed toward their ninth consecutive season in Greater Los Angeles. Their stadium lease still has 15 years remaining.

The Chargers were here Tuesday in part to honor local service members and their families who made up many of the estimated 3,300 fans in attendance at USD.

 

But the team is also here to manage its investment. Wednesday’s practice at Torero Stadium will be open to the San Diegans who still buy season tickets and trek to the Kroenke Dome in Inglewood.

Tuesday marked Los Angeles coach Jim Harbaugh’s return to USD, site of his first head coaching job. But Harbaugh’s tenure as Chargers quarterback summons no nostalgia, even from hardcore Chargers fans in San Diego. When Harbaugh served as a part-time QB under coach Mike Riley’s teams in 1999 and 2000, his career was nearly over and the Ryan Leaf circus was playing out.

The second of those Chargers teams went 1-15, and Harbaugh threw more interceptions than touchdown passes for the second year in a row.

Really, Harbaugh’s lasting imprint on the San Diego Chargers came in 1995, when he helped effect smashmouth ball in an AFC wild-card playoff game here … as a member of the Indianapolis Colts. Harbaugh handed off 13 times to powerful Zack Crockett, who went for 147 yards and two touchdowns as the visiting Colts upset the favored San Diegans. Harbaugh plunged in the final score, a 3-yard dive that gave visiting Indianapolis a 35-20 victory.

None of the L.A. Chargers stars, from Justin Herbert to Derwin James to Khalil Mack and Rashawn Slater, played for the San Diego Chargers.

Herbert, who carries himself very well, said nice things about San Diego based on what he’d heard from retired former teammates. When the Chargers played their final game in San Diego eight-plus years ago, Herbert was a freshman at the University of Oregon.

James lit up the media room after Tuesday’s practice. The man has charisma.

He waxed on Rivers and Gates, two former teammates. “They’re Chargers legends,” he said.

San Diegans, said James, made him feel at home Tuesday — although he began his Chargers career in Carson and has played every year since in Los Angeles. “I saw so many No. 3 jerseys today,” he said. “It made my heart warm.”

The Chargers were here for a long, long time. They’ve been gone for eight-plus years.

The gulf Tuesday felt as broad as the expanse of Camp Pendleton between Oceanside and San Clemente.

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©2025 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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