San Diego Chargers’ owner Dean Spanos retains coach and general manager – NFL News
Finally it is clear that the San Diego Chargers will be retaining Coach Norv Turner and general manager A.J. Smith for the next season.
The decision was made by the Chargers owner Dean Spanos who earlier talked to both the coach and general manager before coming to a final decision.
The coach had been receiving a lot of support from the players and it could have been the deciding factor for Spanos in deciding to retain the coach. The coach has received a lot of support and the fiercest of it came from the Chargers’ quarterback Philip
Rivers. The quarterback has come out exceptionally in support of his coach that didn’t flunk with time. Rivers maintained that Turner had done an excellent job. He noted that it were the players and not the coach who were to be blamed for the loss. Rivers
was happy to see that Turner will now be back in the team.
The Chargers saw their season end and hopes of playoffs squashed after they ended up 8-8. There were just one win less of attaining the AFC West title. A lot of speculation had been prevailing over the future of these two men.
"Bottom line, I believe these two men give us the best chance to get back to the playoffs. A.J. Smith is the best man to improve our roster, and Norv Turner is the best man to lead that roster on the field." Spanos said.
Turner was delighted at the news and said he was excited at the prospectus of returning to the team. Turner has a record of 49-31 in five seasons and a 3-3 record in the playoffs.
"I was excited. I've been excited about this team for a long time. I think probably the most important thing to me, that meant the most to me, is the number of key players who responded the way they did." Turner said.
Both Smith and Turner had contracts signed with the team which were till 2014 for smith and till 2013 for Turner. However, Spanos denied taking this factor into account before making his decision. Spanos said that things had to be evaluated every year and
if there was a need then changes had to be made.
The retaining of Smith comes out as a bit of surprise as the general manager had been facing a lot of criticism for not managing the roster properly. At one time the Chargers had one of the best rosters in the league.
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