Will the Chargers move?

The San Diego Chargers might be sneaking out of the city and no one believes they will leave.

The team recently enacted the "trigger clause" of their lease to Qualcomm Stadium. This clause opens a 90-day window that both enables them to have the city renegotiate their lease, as well as begin talking to other cities about the feasibility of moving their operations to their stadiums.

While the Chargers, and their spokesman Mark Fabiani, pay lip service to the city by offering to open their books for an audit and saying that the team will not negotiate with other cities, there is an underlying series of events that show a pattern of wanting to leave San Diego.

The main reason for my skepticism is that one of the trigger clauses is that the payroll for players must be a certain percentage of revenues. The Chargers exorbitant salaries given during the last two offseasons may well enable them to move.

It began during last year's off-season, the Chargers needed help in many areas on the field as evidenced by a losing streak of nine games to end the season. During that off-season, they signed a couple of free agents.

The most notable was Donnie Edwards (LB). His contract was a five-year, $ 18.5 million deal, and for a player of his talent is in the general area that is to be expected.

The next two signings, however, don't pass this common sense test. Stephen Alexander (TE) was given a five-year, $15 million contract, as was Tim Dwight.

Alexander was only a year removed from the Pro Bowl, but in that year, he missed most of the games that the Redskins played due to injury problems. His contract terms would be expected of a Pro-Bowler, but normally contract values deflate, rather than inflate, if a football player gets injured. It's the proverbial "what have you done for me lately" syndrome that many players find themselves in eventually.

Dwight's contract is even more astonishing. For a player who is an above average return man, and at best a third wide receiver, he received an astounding amount of money. There were serious doubts as to whether he could be an effective second wide receiver and these doubts were confirmed late last year when he was routinely outplayed by the inexperienced Reche Caldwell and Eric Parker.

These undercurrents continued last summer when the Chargers agreed to move their training camp to Carson, California on a five-year contract.

The Chargers currently have the best location for training in the NFL in La Jolla, CA. The weather is not unbearable, the air is clear, and many local fans are able to visit the camp in preparation of the season.

The new Carson complex is in a location with notoriously bad air pollution. It is in a heavily industrialized area near Los Angeles.

While I may be able to understand wanting to get their players secluded for training camp, there are certainly better locations than Carson based purely on the health aspects of polluted air.

The current free-agent off-season, not even two weeks old, has continued the questionable spending habits of San Diego and its owners, the Spanos family. David Boston (WR) was signed to a seven-year, $47 million contract.

While it is undeniable that this Ohio State product is one of the best receivers in football, he is coming with a lot of baggage, which coach Marty Schottenheimer does not like to have on his football teams. He currently has two strikes against him and could face a lengthy suspension if he does not follow NFL rules regarding conduct. If he does transgress, the Chargers may well have given themselves a salary cap albatross along the lines of the Giants and Jason Sehorn.

The other recent big-name acquisition is Lorenzo Neal (FB) who received a three-year $4.5 million deal. Neal, going to his sixth team in 11 seasons and coming off the Pro Bowl, is undoubtedly a fine lead blocker for the Chargers main workhorse, LaDanian Tomlinson. However, the Chargers rarely run two back sets and prefer to spread the field with single back sets and multiple wide receivers.

I am not naive enough to think that the Chargers will actually pay all of this money to these players. Everyone realizes that salary numbers for players are rarely taken to the maximum length or dollar amount. In reality, only the first two seasons are worthy of consideration in deciding the actual impact on a team.

However, if these numbers are on signed contracts, and the Chargers are willing to open their books to the San Diego City Council, you had better believe that they are counting these figures into their salary cap restraints.

Additionally, the Chargers may not talk to other cities, but no one is keeping Paul Tagliabue and Co. from negotiating in earnest with Los Angeles.

The city council had better be very careful, or San Diego may remove itself from the big leagues.