The Los Angeles Chargers keep shooting themselves in the foot in terms of actions that turn off their fans, including the soldiers who were included in a promotional Tweet for #SaluteToService week in the NFL.
This is the tweet the Chargers sent out on Tuesday.
It's #SaluteToService week and we want to see how members of the military #RepTheBolts!
Use the hashtag to show your #Chargers pride and for a chance to be featured on https://t.co/ODd4UiqJ2F
🇺🇸 + ⚡️ = ♥️ pic.twitter.com/r4mkJEWEMd
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) November 14, 2017
Now here’s the actual photo.
@ClayTravis the Chargers cropped out half the flag and a soldier just to make sure "San Diego" wasn't shown on the banner. pic.twitter.com/gflrmba0wX
— Jason Dill (@TRICHERATOPS_) November 14, 2017
Many on social media decried the crop, noting an actual soldier was cut out of the picture just so “San Diego” wasn’t included.
Absolutely pathetic. They cut out part of the flag and a soldier, who is obviously deployed to a combat zone based on the picture, just so they could hide the "San Diego" on the flag. Absolutely shameful. Yeah, you really care about the troops. We feel the love… https://t.co/TPTTcuFdib
— Locked On Chargers (@LockedonLAC) November 14, 2017
Now the person who arranged for the photo has spoken up. Retired Army Sgt. First Class Johnny Case was on his fourth tour of duty and second in Afghanistan when he set up the picture the Chargers used.
“For them to do that to my picture, and not even ask, to crop out one of our guys … it was like, ‘Wow, of course they’re going to do that,’ ” Case said Friday morning in a phone interview with Tod Leonard of The San Diego Union-Tribune. “They have this spite for San Diego. But it’s not about San Diego. It’s a soldier. It’s Veterans Day. You cropped out a veteran.
“I was (mad), but I guess social media had my back and took it over for me. “People are saying, ‘You should sue Dean Spanos,’ ” Case added with a laugh. “I wish. I’d bring the team right back to San Diego.”
The soldier who was cropped out of the Chargers’ picture on social media was Minh Tran.
“I felt it was disrespectful of them to crop me out, but I’m more upset about them cropping out the bottom of the flags,” Tran said Friday in a text. “Everyone in that picture supported the San Diego Chargers. I grew up watching the team and I supported them whether they won or lost.”
The Chargers have apologized for cropping the picture, via a spokesman, noting “The photo should not have been cropped.”