San Diego Chargers: John Spanos Will Not Be General Manager

About a month ago, as I scrolled my way through Twitter one morning, I found an article on Pro Football Talk about John Dean Spanos. John, who is usually referred to as "Baby Spanos" by those that fear nepotism the same way Sicilians fear the plague, has become quite the polarizing figure among fans of the San Diego Chargers for no real reason at all.

The fear is that John Spanos, the son of the current Team Presiden Dean Spanos and grandson of current Owner Alex Spanos, was being groomed to take over as General Manager when A.J. Smith was no longer around in San Diego. Where this came from is anyone's guess and is of no consequence now. The result, however, is anger and resentment towards the entire Spanos name for perceived nepotism. There is an actual reason for this.

The grandson of the Owner and son of the Team President probably shouldn't be Director of College Scouting, you say. Well, in most cases, you're right. In this case, you're wrong. From everything I've heard about John Spanos, and I've heard a lot, the kid is absolutely nuts about college football. Actually, when he used to tweet regularly, you would often see him tweeting about college football games that only true lunatics would care to watch. This is why I've argued that John is the likeliest source for small school finds like Mike Tolbert, Vincent Jackson and Malcom Floyd. But I digress.

The Pro Football Talk article I found stated that John will not be General Manager of the team. Instead, John was being groomed to eventually take over the football side of the business from his father (with his brother, A.G., taking over the non-football side of the business). However, since Dean's not exactly ready to take his eventual step back behind the curtain, John has been spending his time learning everything there is to learn about the game of football so that he might be educated enough to eventually make the right decision when he has to hire or fire a coach or general manager. Seems like a good plan.

Kevin Acee backed this up, mostly, with the article he put out on John Spanos yesterday. Although, as Kevin is wont to do, he threw out a couple of nuggets to keep the fear among the fanbase brewing.

The point is that, while John Spanos will be involved in the hiring of the next Chargers General Manager and Head Coach, he won't be doing so from a position of someone who wants to be, or will one day be, General Manager of the organization. He'll be sitting there and giving his input as the person that will be making the final decision on front office matters in the future.

Instead of scaring away potential GMs and coaches, as some fear he may with his presence, that should be letting them know that there is a plan for the future and that someone with a real football background (unlike Dean who, let's be honest, is more of a business man than a football man) will be there calling the shots in just a few years.

Will everyone calm down now? Can we turn the hatred and fear towards "John Spanos, future GM" into love for "John Spanos, future Team President"?