Tired, Wiser For The Time

Sometimes worlds collide.  Sometimes a discovery is made you never thought would happen.  In the Grateful Dead world, famous recordings that were thought to be lost forever have now seen the light of day in an official release.  A few years back, even Jerry Garcia’s high school prom phots were unearthed and feature the earliest known images of him with a guitar.  I’ve always thought of myself as an active Charger fan, even in the worst of seasons.  Yes, I called Eli Manning the night before the 2004 draft and warned him that karma would catch up with him.  Obviously, it didn’t turn out that way.  But you cant fault me for believing that justice would be coming and it would be on our side.  It was that belief that led me all the way to Pittsburgh on 1/17/95 and also to Miami two weeks later.

The decision to draft Ryan Leaf is often seen as the turning point for the Bolts during that ten year playoff drought.  Meanwhile, we’re almost five years since our last postseason appearance.  Anyway, the narrative is that the Colts got Manning and we got shit.  We never had a shot at anything else and if we hadn’t traded Pat Sapp and Eric Metcalf we’d have taken Andre Wadsworth.  I’ve admitted that I wanted Leaf over Manning.  I even faxed Bill Polian from my East Village apartment telling him that I hoped they would draft Manning.  And you know what?  That also didn’t mean a thing.  They were always going to apparently, even though there is an Indy jersey with Leaf’s name on it in his friend’s man cave.  How do I know that?  Because as I’m sure you already know Ryan Leaf was on Rich Eisen’s show this week to talk about this:

Hunter Thompson loved the NFL.  His favorite team were the 70s Raiders, sadly.  He liked outlaws, even though I (and you FAITHFUL READERS) hate their guts.  Obviously, I’m a big Hunter aficionado.  Jim Irsay is also a Hunter fan.  He’s also a giant douchebag and the son of an even bigger douchebag.  Irsay also collects manuscripts and guitars.  He even bought Jerry Garcia’s most famous one, The “Tiger,” made by Doug Irwin.  You see, all my worlds are intersecting on this one.  So when Irsay was trying to authenticate a copy of On The Road, he reached out to Hunter.  That’s where this letter apparently came from.  Having read everything the late Dr. Thompson read, including his weekly ESPN column, “Hey Rube,” I could told Rich Eisen this was a real letter.

What does it all mean?  Absolutely fucking nothing.  I was surprised to hear that Leaf’s current fiancée is a huge Hunter fan.  Of course, that’s according to Leaf.  His first fiancée was Nikki Lucia, one of the hotter Charger girls in recent history.  Sorry to Buffy’s Charisma Carpenter and my mid 90s crush Jennifer Cooper.  Like I said, I take my fandom seriously.  But you already knew that if you’ve ever visited the Halls Of Justice.  If you are new to this site or discovered it by accident, God help you.

For the record, it’s great that Leaf has turned his life around but his suggestion that the Chargers should have known better than to draft him…that deception was pulled on a lot more football minds than Bobby Beathard’s.

So what’s going on with the current team?  Telesco hasn’t done anything at tight end since Henry went down.  Henry got married, so congratulations there.  Antonio Gates still remains a topic of discussion although nothing real has happened.  Ladainian Tomlinson claims Gates would only play for the Bolts, however.  LT is now on the Chargers’ preseason telecasts with Fouts out.  Of course, Fouts had recently spoken out about the idea of ever being called an “LA Charger.”  The team, as expected said there was no connection between the two things.  I believe it.  Nick Hardwick talked a lot of shit about the move and then got a job with them.  Dan Fouts is the reason I still care about this team, but he was never a great announcer.  He was good in The Waterboy, however.  Daniel Jeremiah from the NFL Network will now call games with Matt “Money” Smith, who still kinda sucks as well.

The Chargers are getting all sorts of hype right now even as they are still being trashed by San Diego. Nick Canepa needs to shut the fuck up. I get the references and I can do you one better. The Spanoses are shitty owners? How about the Dolans or the Wilpons? I am not as into the Knicks or Mets but I bet I’d still be more diehard than most that follow them regularly. The Spanoses suck but they aren’t selling. I guess not living in the city of the team I root for ended being a positive. I will never begrudge San Diegans who wish the worst on the Chargers. I might do the same thing, but I have to embrace my station as a fan. Plus wishing bad things on the Chargers is kind of pointless.

I admit it, I’ve been on a bit of a spiritual journey, especially since my dad passed. But I just came back from a transformative weekend of almost all the music I enjoy. I feel like I’m in a good place. So expect more from me, especially as training camp opens. And yes, I do plan to be in Buffalo September 16. The Bolts still need to sign a tight end, by the way.