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Chargers on move?

Eight-year NFL veteran linebacker Steve Foley, who led the Chargers in sacks in 2004, is in trouble with the law. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review
Eight-year NFL veteran linebacker Steve Foley, who led the Chargers in sacks in 2004, is in trouble with the law. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Cash-strapped San Diego doesn’t have the money to help the Chargers build a new stadium, Mayor Jerry Sanders said Friday, opening the door for Southern California’s only NFL team to leave the city it has called home for 45 years.

Sanders said he plans to ask the City Council to amend the Chargers’ lease to allow the team to begin looking at sites elsewhere in San Diego County before the end of the year. If the team fails to find a new home in the county before Jan. 1, the Chargers would be free to negotiate a deal anywhere in the country.

The Chargers can leave San Diego after the 2008 season if they pay off the approximately $60 million in bonds the city issued in 1997 to expanded Qualcomm Stadium.

“I do not think it would be prudent or honest for me to say to taxpayers, ‘We can’t resurface our roadways, but we can finance a stadium,’ ” the mayor said.

Chargers’ Foley arrested

Linebacker Steve Foley of the San Diego Chargers was arrested in San Diego on charges of resisting arrest after police said he scuffled with officers. Foley also was booked on charges of battery on a police officer and public drunkenness.

One of three officers involved in the struggle with the 6-foot-4, 265-pound linebacker suffered minor injuries, said police spokesman Gary Hassen.

Police were called early in the morning on a report of an SUV, which turned out to be Foley’s, parked the wrong way outside a hotel. They found that its Arkansas plates had expired a year earlier and one officer smelled alcohol on Foley’s breath, Hassen said.

Notes

Anthony Wright officially signed a one-year deal to be the Cincinnati Bengals’ backup quarterback, a vital position with Carson Palmer still recovering from knee surgery. Wright started seven games last season for Baltimore. … The Chicago Bears signed restricted free-agent defensive back Ricky Manning Jr. to an offer sheet, with his agent saying the deal is worth up to $21 million over five years. Manning spent his first three seasons with the Carolina Panthers. … A misdemeanor charge of domestic battery against Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Lional Dalton was dismissed in Olathe, Kan.