In the end....Archie Manning wins

[Savage Lizard]

I don't think that's necessarily true. If it had been Pittsburgh, NE, SF, GB or maybe even Dallas I'm pretty sure the Mannings would have been on board. They didn't have anything against San Diego as a city. They just didn't think the Spanos' were committed to creating a winning platform to make Eli a star (and all of the endorsements that went along with it). AJ Smith was a unknown quantity, they hadn't been successful in putting a stadium upgrade in place, historically they hadn't treated stars very well, there was a lack of leadership (the only way you have two GM-Coach feuds you allow to boil over), etc. Archie languished in NO bc they couldn't put a good team around him. At that point there was no certainty that the team would be come a serious contender, or if it did, to keep it going.

They were wrong about the former, but in the final analysis completely right about the latter.

Perhaps if any of those were possibilities. But the Order was 1. San Diego, 2. Oakland Raiders, 3. Arizona Cardinals. At that point in time, if the Chargers had passed on ECry, would ending up in Oakland or Arizona have been any better? With New York at 4, they knew that they could shit on San Diego and get their way. Watch the NFL show "Caught in the Draft" about the 2004 draft, Leigh Steinberg pretty much tells Ben Roethlisberger that the Mannings are trying to get ECry to New York. If either Arizona or Oakland were at 1, I am convinced they would have run the same playbook running down whatever organization they needed to. The fact that Marty was gushing about Rivers after the Senior Bowl just made it easier for them to pull it off.

[oneinchpunch]

Archie was right about San Diego. It isnt a high profile NFL city. He wanted his son in the spotlight. Which couldve been with a lot of NFL teams. I think he wouldve loved the teams like the Steelers or Packers to be there to take Eli.

This doesnt take away from Spanos sucking, he(they) are a large part of why San Diego isnt a great NFL city.

[Millionaire Wussy]

Beautiful San Diego - where your football experience is a gaping, sucking wound.

EDIT: Except for the Aztecs

[SteveInCbad]

Yeah pretty obviously Archie was right. He knew that the Chargers would never give Rivers an offensive line or the weapons to compete

Sad but true.

That said, Eli is still a punk