The San Diego Chargers Will Play In San Diego in 2012

Do you guys remember last week when Dean Spanos came out and told us all that he was not going to fire Norv Turner, nor AJ Smith? Do you also remember that a bunch of people on the internet argued that this was all part of Dean's master plan to move the team to Los Angeles? I contend a large contingency of those people were wearing foil hats at the time, trying to drown out the voices in their heads that the government planted.

The theory was that Spanos — or Sapnos, whichever you prefer — was going against the vocal public's opinion and sticking with his beleaguered head coach and General Manager in an effort to get ticket sales to tank. Then when ticket sales tanked enough, then he could use that as an excuse to move the team to Los Angeles, saying publicly, "see, people in San Diego don't care about this team!"

Well, it was hogwash then and it's hogwash now, as Mayor Jerry Sanders and the Chargers announced today in a joint statement that the team would not be triggering the exit clause in their Qualcomm Stadium lease, and instead will play the 2012 season in San Diego. In the statement, the team also maintains that they "will continue to work together to explore publically-acceptable ways to build a new Super Bowl-quality stadium in San Diego."

Be sure to check out the full release on Chargers.com, as it contains a Q&A with team Special Counsel Mark Fabiani regarding the future of the stadium issue.