Tom Brady is the Only Man Who Can Save the Los Angeles Chargers From Themselves

The Los Angeles Chargers, as they are prone to do, have found themselves in a bind of their own creation. They were a playoff team in 2018, but fell apart in 2019 and went 5-11. Their star running back missed a chunk of the season while holding out. Once the regular season mercifully ended, the team announced they wouldn't be bringing back Philip Rivers, the face of the Chargers for 15 years. To top it off, all this happened on the eve of the opening of their new stadium.

Los Angeles had an extremely tough time selling tickets last season, and everyone noticed. "Home" games were regularly dominated by opposing fans. And that was in their temporary digs at Dignity Health Sports Park, with a capacity of 27,000. Their new SoFi Stadium will have a capacity of just over 70,000. If they couldn't get many of their fans to buy tickets last year, how are they expecting to sell out over twice the amount of seats coming off a bad season and without their beloved franchise quarterback?

Only one man is capable of such a Herculean task. His name is Tom Brady.

Austin Ekeler, just about the only positive to come out of last season, is already on board. He went on NFL Total Access on Tuesday night to say that Brady would help fill a leadership hole that now exists within the organization after the departure of Rivers and Russell Okung, who was traded to Carolina in exchange for Trai Turner.

Football-wise, there are better destinations for Brady. But he did just start a production company out in LA, and he is a California boy at heart. As he moves closer to his post-playing career, moving to Los Angeles would be a step towards achieving the lofty goals he surely has planned off the football field. The Chargers better hope that's enough, because he's the only solution to the problem they face: a complete and utter lack of interest in their organization that will result in many an empty seat in 2020.

Bringing Brady in wouldn't right all of the wrongs that the Spanos family has committed over the years in the eyes of their fanbase, but he's certainly the most exciting option for any Chargers fan. But Brady would put butts in seats, plain and simple. There are a lot of Northeastern transplants in Los Angeles, and Brady is one of the few names in sports that every single person knows, from the most diehard of football fans to the most indifferent.

Sure, potential ticket-buyers may be fans of Brady rather than the Chargers. But that's a better outcome than 10,000 home fans, 40,000 away fans, and 20,000 empty seats. Los Angeles needs to start off their first season in their new stadium with a bang. This is the only way to do it.