San Diego got lucky with Philip Rivers, the quarterback with whom the Chargers are splitting up after 16 years of football marriage, the first 13 in San Diego.
Rivers kept the attention of local sports fans, from one Sunday to the next, for more than a decade. Off the field, he helped folks — many of them troubled children — and earned high marks for accountability, work ethic and civic pride.
Whether the hundreds of thousands of San Diegans who’ve continued to watch the Chargers on TV since the franchise relocated north three years ago will continue to pay attention remains to be seen, but this much is clear:
Rivers and the team parting ways Monday severs the franchise’s final major link to the San Diego era, which began in 1961.