Posted by Will Brinson

The NFL returning to Los Angeles seems almost as foregone a conclusion as an 18-game schedule (although at least the latter is up for negotiation). To speed up the process, though, there would probably need to be some instability in ownership, which, apparently might be coming to San Diego.

According to Jon Weinbach of FanHouse, Chargers owner Alex Spanos is in poor health and his family has hired Goldman Sachs to sell a minority share of the team.

Each of his kids own 15 percent of the Chargers, while Spanos and his wife own 36 percent -- the section up for grabs is purportedly (according to what Mark Fabiani, the leader in trying to secure the Bolts a new stadium) only for "estate-planning purposes."

However, Weinbach reports that reps from Goldman have "recently met with several wealthy individuals" in Los Angeles about the minority stake up for sale.

Of course, if people with vested interest in the L.A. community suddenly owned part of a football team in San Diego, things could get a little spicy, especially since the Chargers can, ahem, bolt from their deal with Qualcomm Stadium via a buyout with the city of San Diego that's available, according to Weinbach, once a year.

These rumors stem from the recent Anschutz Entertainment Group plan to build a $725 million stadium near Staples Center and L.A. Live, a thriving entertainment section in downtown Los Angeles.

Someone from San Diego can certainly buy the stake, but it would take a pretty wealthy individual with a vested interest in helping the community, making some money and NFL football. So, I'm gonna lob someone out that could help keep the Chargers in place: Phil Mickelson.

The multiple Masters winner is a huge NFL fan, he's from San Diego, he has plenty of money and he's shown an affinity for smart business investments (see him owning all the Southern California franchise rights to Five Guys).

That's absolute conjecture (although I'm more than willing to play a round with Phil and discuss the matter, if he's free) but the point still remains -- while people around the Chargers will say that they don't have to get a non-L.A. investor to buy the minority share, it would certainly help keep the team in place.

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