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Showing posts with label nate kaeding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nate kaeding. Show all posts

Chargers bracing fans for L.T.'s departure?

Posted by Posted by Linda on Saturday, January 17, 2009 , under , , , , | comments (0)



SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Chargers appear to be bracing their fans for the possibility that LaDainian Tomlinson's brilliant eight-year run with the team could be over.

San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson watches from the bench San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson watches from the bench during the second quarter

According to the team's Web site, club president Dean Spanos called the star running back Thursday to discuss reports that the Chargers might part with Tomlinson, who has been slowed by injuries the last two postseasons and will count $8.8 million against the salary cap next year.

"We talked about the situation and I just tried to explain everything that must be considered," Spanos said in a story detailing the offseason decisions the team must make. "I told him we haven't even started our discussions and won't for a while, so don't jump to any conclusions. And I told him I would call him personally to make sure he's aware of everything that's going on."

Tomlinson, the NFL MVP in 2006, missed the Chargers' playoff loss at Pittsburgh on Sunday with a groin injury. That, coupled with the lowest rushing total of his career, has led to speculation that the team might try to trade or even release L.T.

Tomlinson, who turns 30 in June, is under contract through 2011. Slowed by toe and groin injuries, Tomlinson gained a career-low 1,110 yards in 2008. Two seasons earlier, he set NFL records with 31 touchdowns — including 28 rushing — and 186 points.

The team declined to make Spanos available for further comment. Tomlinson didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Six years ago, the Chargers were criticized for the way they got rid of star linebacker Junior Seau. Feeling Seau's play was in decline, the Chargers told him he was free to pursue a trade.

During a farewell news conference at the restaurant he owns, Seau said he had lobbied the team to release him so he could seek a free-agent deal. Describing himself as fired, unemployed and humbled, the 12-time Pro Bowler Seau was then traded to the Miami Dolphins.

In another unpopular move, the Chargers cut hard-hitting safety Rodney Harrison after the 2002 season because he'd been slowed by an ankle injury. The Patriots signed Harrison as a free agent and he ended up winning two Super Bowls with them.

Tomlinson hurt his groin in the regular-season finale against Denver on Dec. 28. He started the wild-card playoff game against Indianapolis but came out after scoring a touchdown early in the second quarter. The Chargers went on to beat the Colts 23-17 in overtime, carried by Darren Sproles' 328 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner.

Tomlinson didn't suit up against Pittsburgh, which beat the Chargers 35-24. The Steelers held Sproles, who'll become an unrestricted free agent, to 15 yards on 11 carries.

After the Broncos game, the Chargers announced that Tomlinson had a strained groin. Reports surfaced the day of the playoff game against the Colts that Tomlinson had a detached tendon that connects one of his groin muscles to his pubic bone.

Four days later, Tomlinson — long the franchise's most brutally honest employee — confirmed that he had a detached tendon and practically scoffed at the team's public diagnosis.

"If it was a strain I'd be able to play with it, trust me," Tomlinson said. "A lot of guys have strains."

General manager A.J. Smith was livid that the severity of Tomlinson's injury was revealed and called out the player's camp.

A year ago, Tomlinson missed most of the AFC championship game at New England with a sprained ligament in his left knee. He stood glumly on the sidelines huddled in a parka, wearing his helmet with a tinted visor. Some people criticized Tomlinson's toughness, but the Chargers themselves had provided an overly optimistic update on his injury, announcing in the press box early in the second quarter that Tomlinson had a "sore knee" and that he "can return."

Perhaps wanting to keep up some gamesmanship, the Chargers never updated that report even though Tomlinson and coach Norv Turner later said they knew by early in the second quarter that the running back wouldn't return.

"It's obvious that I couldn't play," Tomlinson said afterward. "If I could have played, I would have been in there."

Tomlinson's agent, Tom Condon, has declined comment.

Condon clients have been at odds with Smith in the past, notably Marty Schottenheimer, Donnie Edwards and Eli Manning.

Schottenheimer was fired as San Diego's coach in February 2007 because of what Spanos called a "dysfunctional situation" with Smith. Edwards, who led the Chargers in tackles for five straight seasons, fell into disfavor with Smith, apparently for asking one time too many for a contract extension, and was allowed to leave as an unrestricted free agent following the 2006 season.

Three days before the 2004 draft, Smith revealed that Archie Manning, through Condon, didn't want his son, Eli, to be taken by the Chargers with the No. 1 pick overall.

Smith picked Manning anyway, then dealt him to the New York Giants for Philip Rivers and a haul of picks that he used to select kicker Nate Kaeding in that draft and star outside linebacker Shawne Merriman in the first round of the 2005 draft.

Eli Manning was MVP of the Giants' Super Bowl upset of New England last year.

After the 2005 season, Smith chose to keep Rivers over Drew Brees, another Condon client.

Foes sigh when Scifres booms punts for Chargers

Posted by Posted by Linda on Friday, January 9, 2009 , under , | comments (0)



SAN DIEGO – Peyton Manning's biggest nemesis in Saturday night's wild-card loss to the Chargers wasn't a defender eager to pound him into the ground or pick off a pass.

In this Oct. 19, 2008, file photo San Diego Chargers' Mike Scifres punts during In this Oct. 19, 2008, file photo San Diego Chargers' Mike Scifres punts during the second half

It was punter Mike Scifres, San Diego's secret weapon who stuck six punts inside the 20-yard line and was as big a reason as any that San Diego stuck a fork in Manning's MVP season.

Darren Bennett, the former Australian Rules football star who punted for the Chargers for nine years and helped break in Scifres as a rookie, called it "the single best punting game I've ever seen."

It was the first time in playoff history a punter dropped that many kicks that deep, and his 52.7-yard average was third-highest in playoff history.

Bennett was doing a postgame radio show at Junior Seau's restaurant in Mission Valley when Scifres (pronounced SEYE'-furz) walked in.

"It was the first time I've ever seen a punter get a standing ovation in a restaurant," said Bennett, a two-time Pro Bowler who made the NFL's All-Decade team for the 1990s. "That was pretty cool."

Scifres, who has a booming leg and a sky-high hang time, tried to deflect the credit for his big night.

"Luck, man," he said with a laugh.

"We work at it," Scifres said, turning serious for just a minute. "I punted how I'm capable of punting and I feel good about it."

Scifres' impressive night didn't totally dispel the myth that NFL specialists just stand around for most of practice.

"No, we really do just stand around for two hours every day," said Scifres, an easygoing sixth-year pro from Louisiana. "We just kick every once in a while."

Scifres continually put Manning and the Colts in horrible field position. His punts of 51, 58, 50, 67, 38 and 52 yards forced the Colts to start drives at the 10, 19, 3, 7, 9 and 1-yard lines.

His biggest punt was the 52-yarder that bounced out of bounds at the 1 with 2:41 to play and the Chargers trailing 17-14. Had it bounced into the end zone for a touchback, the Colts probably would've had a better shot at a first down to put the game away. Instead, Manning was sacked, the Colts punted, Darren Sproles had a 26-yard return and Nate Kaeding kicked a tying 26-yard field goal to force overtime. The Chargers won 23-17 on Sproles' 22-yard run 6:20 into OT.

"I think that their punter is the MVP of the game," Colts running back Dominic Rhodes said afterward.

"It's not often another team has to acknowledge the other team's punter was the difference in the game," Bennett said.

"I think he was hotter than a pistol," general manager A.J. Smith said. "Things were really, really falling in line."

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hopes he doesn't get saddled with similarly bad field position when the Chargers visit Sunday.

"He won that game for them," Roethlisberger said. "That's enormous, especially when you have a team backed up and they're punting and you think you are going to get field position and all of a sudden they put it inside the 10-yard line."

The Steelers beat the Chargers on Nov. 16 at Pittsburgh in the only 11-10 game in NFL history. After the Steelers came up with a safety early in the second quarter, Scifres boomed a 75-yard free kick to the Pittsburgh 5. The Steelers returned only to the 12 and had a penalty, winding up with the ball on the 6.

"He knocked us back deep again," Roethlisberger said. "That's big. The field position game is huge, especially in the playoffs. We will have to hope he has a bad day."

Scifres was a fifth-round pick in 2003, Bennett's final year in San Diego and Smith's first draft as Chargers GM.

"I thought Mike Scifres was one of the greatest talents that I had seen in my scouting career," Smith said. "I thought the physical attributes were there, incredible leg. I thought the potential was immense. He's been just unbelievable."

Scifres had practically the equivalent of a redshirt year as a rookie. He handled kickoffs in six games and was inactive in the other 10. Meanwhile, he picked up as much as he could from Bennett.

"A decision had to be made on that one that was a little bit different because of his ability at that time," Smith said. "We had a punter here, a good punter here, in Darren Bennett. I just felt we couldn't bypass this individual and wait down the road for another punter. I felt it had to happen immediately."

Bennett taught Scifres a drop punt used in Australian Rules Football. When he wants to stick a punt inside the 20 and increase the odds for a favorable bounce, Scifres drops the ball nose down and kicks the end of the ball.

The Chargers rave about how long Scifres' punts hang in the air.

"If I didn't have Mike out there, I wouldn't do half the stuff I'm able to do," said coverage ace Kassim Osgood. "He gives you so much time to be able to get down there and cover the ball."

Special teams coach Steve Crosby said Scifres' best hang time was 5.87 seconds on a 69-yard punt against Oakland three years ago. His best this season was 5.7 seconds on the 67-yarder against the Colts.

"Five seconds was always the benchmark," Bennett said. "People don't understand what a difference that extra second in the air makes. It's a massive difference. There's times where other punt returners will resign themselves to the fact Mike is hitting a high ball, so they'll call a fair catch the second it comes off his foot.