L.T. SPEAKS ON HIS STATUS WITH THE CHARGERS

Well, all those hours of taking in the same endless loop of highlights and sound bites on ESPN has finally paid off. Thanks to the never-ending daytime SportsCenter, we’ve become aware of a new quote on the personal web site of LaDainian Tomlinson regarding his status with the San Diego Chargers. Says Tomlinson: “I have been getting a lot of messages on my site regarding me leaving San Diego. I feel that I need to make it very clear that I have NO intentions of leaving San Diego. San Diego is where my career started and where I’d like it to end. I have nothing but love and the upmost [sic] respect for this team, the players, and the Spanos Family. Me being traded is completely out of my hands. I have ABSOLUTELY no control in that decision making. All I can do is wait and see how it all plays out. As for now, I am a Charger and will be until I am told otherwise.” Whether he will be told otherwise remains to be seen. When G.M. A.J. Smith and owner Dean Spanos have had recent opportunities to publicly declare that L.T. definitely will be back in 2009, they haven’t. And so it’s appropriate to speculate that he might not return. Though he refers to the possibility of being traded, Tomlinson also needs to take into account the possibility that, in the end, the Chargers might not be able to find a team that’s willing to absorb his 2009 salary. And that means he might suffer the indignity of being released, two years after being named the NFL’s MVP. One person who’ll shed no tears for L.T. is Shaun Alexander.