Baltimore safety Eric Weddle will have the uncomfortable task of meeting his ex this weekend when the Ravens face the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night.
The breakup was bitter when the Chargers decided to move on in 2015 after nine seasons. The end under then-coach Mike McCoy got ugly, with the Chargers fining Weddle at one point for staying on the field during halftime simply to watch his daughter perform. The divorce was so bad Weddle once said the team was "dead to me."
After three years in Baltimore and continued success, Weddle, who was named to his sixth Pro Bowl, now holds no bitterness to his former team.
"When I retire, am I going to walk through the L.A. Chargers practice facility and say hi to everyone? Probably not," Weddle told ESPN. "I definitely will never forget what happened and what they said and did to me and my family. But I'm not going to hold any grudges."
Time heals all wounds. It might help that the staff that treated him so poorly got unceremoniously chucked in the trash (McCoy's continued struggles with NFL employment might not hurt either).
Like most people meeting their ex after a few years, Weddle insists he's moved on from the acrimony.
"I've kind of moved forward and not really held onto a lot of that stuff that I did early on for a lot of reasons," Weddle said. "You have to move on and be a better self. I didn't play for that coach. I know a few of the players that I was teammates with. That's when they were the San Diego Chargers, not the L.A. Chargers. I look at them as a different team."
Not everyone is new on the Chargers.
Weddle's longtime teammate Philip Rivers continues to sling it in powdered blue. The signal-caller is enjoying an MVP-caliber season and looks forward to matching wits with Weddle for the first time in live action on Saturday night.
"He knows that I know that he knows, you know what I mean?" Rivers said. "And vice versa. Different things. I mean, he and I used to always talk about things, 'I saw you do this' or 'I saw you tell him something.' So he knows. You almost know too much, and you almost paralyze yourself: 'I thought he was doing this, and it looks like he's doing that.'"
In a game that's pivotal for both teams, with the Chargers attempting to overtake the Chiefs for the AFC West title and a first-round bye, and the Ravens clawing their way to a playoff spot, Weddle's former relationship with his opponent will provide underlying current. His on-field effect on the outcome could be much greater.
