LOREN NELSON COMMENTARY: Unscheduled loss: Cooper news overshadows Chargers' Schedule Day

By LOREN NELSON - Staff Writer | Wednesday, April 16, 2008 6:42 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- Nothing puts a damper on NFL Schedule Day like a drug bust.

Conveniently, the news of Chargers linebacker Stephen Cooper's four-game league suspension broke Tuesday after Norv Turner's midday media session devoted to discussing the release of the team's 2008 schedule.

And, really, it was unnecessary to have the coach deal with this one live.

It's been proven that prepared statements using buzzwords such as "disappointing" and "unfortunate" are much more effective in cases such as these (see Merriman, Shawne: 2006 regular season).

So we are left unsure as to what Cooper took, when he took it and how he could have been so dumb.

What we do know is that the Chargers are thrilled to be going to London for a game against New Orleans, and what a great opportunity it will be for the players, and blah, blah, blah.

In fairness, Cooper's NFL suspension for testing positive to a banned stimulant ends a scintillating run of good conduct. It had been more than 365 working days since the last arrest/failed drug test/cul-de-sac shootout involving a Charger. For an NFL franchise, that's the real-world equivalent of going a lifetime without so much as a parking ticket.

Now that number gets reset to zero, and the Chargers will be without their leading tackler from last season as they open 2008 with games against Carolina, Denver, the New York Jets and Oakland.

Looking back, Turner might have been talking in code Tuesday when he was asked about the Chargers potentially starting the season without several star players still hobbling from major offseason surgeries.

Quarterback Philip Rivers, tight end Antonio Gates and center Nick Hardwick each have months of hard-core rehabbing ahead of them before they'll be fit to play.

"You know, I expect to have all our guys, I really do," Turner said about the season opener. "We may be in a situation where one of our guys is not where we want him to be."

Hmmmm.

The nice thing about these NFL suspensions is there's no "game-day decision" bait-and-switches like you see with injuries (see Tomlinson, LaDainian and Rivers, Philip: 2007 AFC Championship Game). Cooper is going to sit, and there's no way around it. Even the old "tainted supplement" defense won't allow him to wiggle out of this one.

Merriman tested positive for steroids in 2006 (tainted supplements) and also sat out four games. The Chargers won them all.

But the media didn't assemble at Chargerland on Tuesday to talk about the past ---- or drug suspensions. It was Schedule Day, and although we already knew who the Chargers were playing, and where, now we know the whens and without whos (or is it whoms?).

Turner, bless him, even counted the London game among the Chargers' five (or six depending on who is doing the math) prime-time appearances. The game against the Saints will be shown at 10 a.m. on the West Coast, but no doubt will be a ratings bonanza in the U.K.

Hopefully, Chargers' fans used pencils when furiously marking their Ws and Ls next to each game. Injuries, inconsistency and flat-out lousy play (not to mention drug suspensions) can turn Super Bowl hopefuls into punch lines faster than you can say "torn anterior cruciate ligament" or Deca-Durabolin.

Six of the last seven Super Bowl losers have failed to reach the playoffs the following season.

Looking at it another way: "Every year there are two or three teams that make a significant jump," Turner said. "And that changes the way your schedule is looked at."

No doubt the salary cap and free agency have been great equalizers. The New England Patriots aside, extended runs of NFL dominance are highly improbable.

"There is more uncertainty, more unknown now," Turner said, perhaps issuing more clues again. "I think it is harder at this time of the year to sit and say, 'Well, this is an easy part of the schedule, this is a difficult part of the schedule.' "

Turner said, to him, all of it looks hard.

And really, after losing a starter for four games for no good reason, there's no other way to view it.

Contact sports editor Loren Nelson at (760) 740-3551 or lnelson@nctimes.com. Comment at sports.nctimes.com.

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