Chargers score healing moment

SAN DIEGO

An unpleasant stench settled over Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday just as the Houston Texans appeared from their locker room tunnel.

Oh, yeah. The air quality stunk, too.

As diversions go, NFL fans in this damaged area couldn't have hoped for a better sense of temporary comic relief to the communal sorrow created by the weeklong wildfires than how easily the Chargers won.

They could have played this game in Antarctica and the result -- San Diego coasted 35-10 after leading 35-3 at halftime -- would have been similar, except such a frosty place might have dissuaded the Charger girls from wearing those Halloween costumes and why would anyone deny this town even the smallest pleasure right now?

Sports have forever offered a momentary relief from catastrophe. They can't rebuild homes or retake destroyed family pictures or replace a lifetime worth of memories. They can't heal the severest of burns.

But dealing with the heartbreak of more than 2,000 homes destroyed is made more tolerable by a simple touchdown pass or the hilarity of watching a Texans punter clumsily chase a bad snap into the end zone. Sports don't make you forget. They help you heal.

It happened last year when the Saints played their first home game since Hurricane Katrina, when for one night an inconsolable city tried its best to discover a sense of normalcy. You had that same impression here Sunday, that football served as a small but distinct symbol of recovery among the ashes.

That for nearly three hours, life wasn't about the next siren or tanker plane dropping fire retardant or a hydrant full of tears.

"You see it happen all the time," Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson said. "People rally around sports. That's the way it has pretty much always been. People love sports. I thought this was a special atmosphere for our fans, for us to be the entertainment and help take their minds off the things they have been through this week."

The city and NFL waited until the last possible moment to announce the Chargers would play at home as scheduled, to be certain the structure used as a massive evacuation center for displaced victims would be ready for more than 60,000 fans.

They waited as the team relocated to Arizona for practice. They waited and yet you knew this is how it would conclude if at all possible, given the millions of dollars an NFL team loses if a home game is moved. The Chargers already experienced such a shift during the Cedar fire four years ago and fell to Miami in Arizona.

The site wasn't as big a difference in the team winning this time for one obvious truth: The Chargers have better players now. They're no longer awful.

Want ironic?

It wasn't watching four San Diego firefighters, including one carrying a U.S. flag, lead the Chargers onto the field that most represented a horrific week. It wasn't Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger greeting firefighters and police officers and other emergency personnel before kickoff. It wasn't a video of heartbreaking images or the sight of Salvation Army volunteers collecting fire relief donations.

It was the darkness while driving toward the city limits Saturday night.

It stares back at you like some mocking reminder of the destruction that ravaged these parts. It's out there off Interstate 15, off those exits leading to the inland community of Rancho Bernardo, the ones where you are greeted with flashing signs that read "RESIDENTS ONLY."

There are only a few lights from homes in the distance now, like a handful of white dots against an enormous black screen. It's a harsh view made worse by the smell rushing through your car window -- that stout, smoky odor weighing down a fall nighttime breeze.

"It was a tough week, but really not for us as a team," Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said. "I know that is what gets reported because people are interested in us. But it wasn't tough. What this community went through, that was tough. The people who lost their homes and were injured. Hopefully, this (game) helps continue to spark the rebuilding of a lot of places. Hopefully, this win gives ease to some of the people's pain."

Sports are a small blessing this way, a break from what has been a grueling time of unimaginable loss and anguish. The relationship might be minor in the big picture of what happened here, but that shouldn't diminish the importance of nearly three hours Sunday.

When the sirens faded and the hydrant began spilling tears of laughter rather than misery. When for the first time since those terrifying flames began to rise, something around here stunk more than the air.

Credit the Texans. They played their part to perfection.

Ed Graney can be reached at (702) 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.