Days ago, as word quietly spread in league circles there had been _ finally _ communication between the Chargers and Joey Bosa's representation, the most significant development between the two parties wasn't a key contract parameter they reached or even the fact they spoke.
It was the volume.
Contract disputes, like grief, progress across different stages. In the past week, the Chargers and Bosa's side graduated from publicly airing their grievances, a stage that began in late July when Bosa remained unsigned at the start of training camp. Neither side spoke to the other in that span. They recently broke their silence, sources said, and entered a new stage.
This one is amenable to a deal getting done.
When the Chargers and Bosa's agent Brian Ayrault resumed talks last week, few heard about it. If either the team or Ayrault wanted the news out, it'd have been. Be it local or national, various reporters were aware of the communication between the sides, but at the request of multiple involved officials to keep the development off record, it was not reported. A USA Today report Thursday evening pulled the figurative cat from the bag; however, it is important to note, the silence that was intended largely remains.
No one is leaking intimate details of the talks, such as whether a contract offer has been exchanged for the first time since July 28.
No one is mentioning what progress, if any, has been made to mitigate their fundamental disagreement about such contract structure parameters as the cash payout deferment of Bosa's $17 million signing bonus.
For the first time since late July, no one is saying much of anything publicly.
To close the gap that keeps Bosa away and retain civility, this is the silence the dispute demanded.
On Friday evening, the Chargers will play the Cardinals in their second exhibition game. Bosa, their No. 3 overall pick and projected starting left defensive end, won't be there. He has missed every training camp practice, every team-bonding activity, every meeting. He wasn't there for the team's rookie symposium in July. He wasn't there in June for the 10th and final OTA practice or two days of minicamp.
Throw in, during a period that consumed late July into the first half of August, a source close to Bosa calling damage between him and the team "irreparable," a family member's comment about wishing Bosa "pulled an Eli Manning," current and former Chargers calling on Bosa to take a more proactive role in the stalemate and show up, and reported details (most accurate, others disputable) about why the impasse existed in the first place, a healthy amount has been said already.
None of that brings Bosa closer to boarding a flight from Fort Lauderdale.
Private talk between the Chargers and Ayrault can. Quietly, they have begun that stage.
It's a start.
