NBC San Diego’s Jim Laslavic on Monday night laid into the point man for the joint Chargers-Raiders stadium project in Carson, calling Carmen Policy “you jerk!”
Shedding journalistic calm during a late telecast, the former Chargers linebacker said Policy was trying to “rip the heart out of our sports fans.”
Bill Johnston, the Chargers’ director of public relations, declined to comment on the sportscaster’s remarks.
Laslavic also offered his own solution to keeping the Bolts in San Diego.
“My suggestion is for the city to start calling the billionaires,” said the station’s longtime sports director. “There are lots of billionaires out there. Just get one on the phone. Carlos Slim spends time in Coronado. He’s the wealthiest man in the world.”
Laslavic, also a Coronado resident, said Slim — known as the “Warren Buffet of Mexico” — could be made part owner of the Chargers, so “let him build a stadium.”
(Slim slipped from richest person on the Forbes list. Bill Gates is No. 1 on the 2015 list with a net worth of $79.2 billion. Slim’s family is second at $77.1 billion.)
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- Chargers, Raiders Hire Carmen Policy for Carson Negotiations
In a report starting about 11:30 p.m., Laslavic noted how NFL owners were “meeting in the Windy City — that’s appropriate.”
Then he introduced an interview by NBC7’s Derek Togerson with Policy in Chicago. Laslavic called Policy a “former 49ers owner” and “a member of Team Fabiani.” (Mark Fabiani is special counsel to Chargers owner Dean Spanos. Policy was president and CEO of the San Francisco NFL team.)
Policy told Togerson: “We feel we have the best project. … We just talk about our positives. We talk about why we’re the best for the NFL, and we feel we have a compelling story to tell.”
To which Laslavic said: “And here’s my compelling story. A city supports a football team for 50 years and then guys like Carmen Policy try to rip it out — and rip the heart out of our sports fans. Go ahead, Carmen Policy — you jerk!”
After a brief interlude on a player story, Laslavic returned to the stadium issue.
“There are so many moving parts,” he said. “It’s not easy moving a team. There’s so much that has to be done. Way easier to stay in San Diego.”
He ended his segment by labeling his call-a-billionaire cure “simplistic, but so am I. I think it might work.”
Greg Dawson, NBC7’s vice president of news, told Times of San Diego that his station has consistently covered the stadium issue in a fair and balanced way.
“In this instance,” Dawson said, “Laz took a moment during his sportscast and expressed a personal opinion — clearly identified as such — on a highly emotional issue and was standing up for the countless people in San Diego who have supported the Chargers.”
Asked if he had any second thoughts, Laslavic on Tuesday afternoon said: “No. Not really. I’m disappointed that [Policy] has become the team’s new mouthpiece of negativity.”
Preston Turegano, who once covered local TV and radio for The San Diego Union-Tribune, defended Laslavic as “within his rights” to share his opinion on what Turegano called the “impending divorce” between the city and Chargers.
“Using ‘contemptible person’ as one of the definitions of a jerk, I would have directed that toward (Chargers lawyer) Mark Fabiani,” Turegano said Tuesday.
“But in a season of public name-calling brought to new heights (or lows) by Donald Trump, Laslavic’s frustration over the Chargers saga surfaced by calling Policy a jerk. That’s not like using profanity, cursing or being crude like Trump, who is a bully. Laz was right, professionally and personally.”
Turegano, who retired from the paper in 2006, also said: “The city, and other advocates of keeping the Chargers here, should sit in a dark room with a bottle of vino and play a little Sinatra — specifically ‘It’s over, it’s over, it’s over’ — and just move on.”
Updated at 6:20 p.m. Aug. 11, 2015
