mind myself of Levys awakening when I grow weary and think, Whats the point? B

SAN DIEGO -- Four city council members are offering San Diego Chargers owner Dean Spanos a lease of $1 a year for 99 years for the Qualcomm Stadium site as a starting point for negotiations for a new stadium.The offer will be in a letter due to be sent to Spanos on Tuesday, with copies going to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the 31 other NFL owners.It comes six weeks after a Chargers-written ballot measure asking for $1.15 billion in increased hotel taxes for a new downtown stadium was soundly defeated, the latest twist in the teams long, bitter attempt to replace aging Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley.The Chargers have until Jan. 15 to exercise an option to move to Los Angeles and join the Rams in a stadium in Inglewood scheduled to open in 2019.Councilman Scott Sherman, whose district includes Qualcomm Stadium, shared a copy of the letter with The Associated Press on Monday evening.The hour is late, and the time to find a stadium solution is getting dangerously short, the letter started.The last two paragraphs read: Before leaving 60 years of tradition and loyal fans, lets give one last concerted effort to come to the table and hammer this out face to face, working together toward a common goal of keeping the NFL in Americas Finest City. If we fail to come to an agreement, at least we will know that nothing was left untested and we can part ways knowing that we gave it our all.We ask that the Chargers give San Diego fans another chance.It will be signed by Sherman, Chris Cate, new council president Myrtle Cole and Lorie Zapf.Sherman and Cate opposed Measure C but want the Chargers to stay in San Diego, preferably in Mission Valley. They hope the letter can get the Chargers to the negotiating table for the first time in 1 1/2 years.The Chargers rejected a city-county plan for a new stadium at the Qualcomm site in 2015, and then voters rejected Measure C.So heres another starting point, and lets not give up on 60 years of tradition and fan loyalty, Sherman told the AP.The Chargers didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.The tricky part, of course, is coming up with a plan to pay for a new stadium.Sherman and Cate said theyd like to see the Chargers, NFL and a development partner build a stadium. Both council members said they hoped it could get done with no public money.At the end of the day, 166 acres in the geographic center of the eighth-largest city in the country is the perfect spot to develop, Sherman said. Im convinced we could get over 50 percent (of a vote) with that. This is all just a starting point to start the discussion. The way we laid it out with the lease, its a large incentive to come to the table.In 2004, the Chargers failed in their attempt to get the city to give them a large chunk of the Qualcomm property in exchange for privately developing a stadium.The cheap lease deal is as close as getting the land given to you as possible, Sherman said.The Chargers walked away from talks with the city and county in June 2015 and focused on a plan to build a stadium in a Los Angeles suburb with the rival Oakland Raiders. That plan was defeated by NFL owners in January in favor of the Rams Inglewood plan, but the Chargers were given the option of moving to L.A. If they decide to move, theyll have to make a deal with either the Coliseum or the 27,000-seat StubHub! Center as a temporary home.Mayor Kevin Faulconer has had private talks with Spanos and a team representative in recent weeks. Details of those talks werent made public.We need to hear from the organization what their concerns are, and if theyre even open to having a discussion for Mission Valley, Cate told the AP. These are things we need to hear from them about. The fans need to hear from them, too. What does success look like to them? We havent been able to have a discussion as a council with them. This lets them know were willing to have that conversation.Sherman said he hopes people with the NFL note that for the first time, four sitting council members say this is something we can support and move forward from here, something thats never happened before.Is this a final Hail Mary from City Hall?I think were going to continue to push as long as they havent called U-Haul and havent t moved the trucks up, Cate said. Were going to continue to have proactive outreach to the team to see if we can open dialogue. This is the opening salvo.---Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/berniewilson---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFLSwell Water Bottle Nz .com) - The red-hot Los Angeles Kings will try to extend their winning streak to a season-high seven games when they visit the Edmonton Oilers for Sundays clash at Rexall Place. Swell Water Bottle Clearance . -- Ohio States Urban Meyer has never had any issue acclimating to the biggest stages in college football. http://www.swellbottlesnz.com/swell-bottle-marble-nz-sale.html . It just didnt show when he hit the ice. Berra made 42 saves and Kris Russell scored at 1:32 of overtime, lifting the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night. SWell Marble Bottle Nz .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. Swell Wood Water Bottle . -- Its been a long road back for Sean Bergenheim.In November, espnWs weekly essay series will focus on giving.The September leaves had just begun to transition from chlorophyll-filled green to translucent yellow. I was sitting in my Brooklyn apartment in 2014 chatting with my dad, a die-hard Ravens fan.The conversation took an awkward turn to the topic of running back Ray Rice, who had been caught on video dragging his unconscious then-fiancé Janay Palmer out of a Las Vegas hotel elevator.The NFL had done a poor job of handling the domestic abuse from the jump, but once the video was made public for the world to see, the league decided to part ways with Rice.This felt wrong to my father.It was the first time Id yelled at him for what I considered victim blaming. He did not condone the act, but the language he used certainly would make any feminists head spin.In that moment I thought: If seemingly kind and good and smart men like my father didnt understand domestic abuse or misogyny, we were at a loss of ever reaching the men who arent good.Almost two years after the Rice incident, former NFL star Darren Sharper was sentenced to 18 years in prison for raping half a dozen women. No bold statements from the NFL. No condemnation from his colleagues. It was just quiet.He was even nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, only to receive not a single vote from the selection committee.Still.I was done with the NFL.NFL players wives and girlfriends were suffering at the hands of its men. Physical and sexual assault was handled abysmally by the league, with no sign of an organization that was moving toward actually caring about women.Then along came Detroit Lions linebacker DeAndre Levy.Levy stands at 6-foot-1. His smooth, latte-colored face is adorned by a thick beard that looks like it holds the keys to black boy magic. By all measures, he is a unicorn in an industry that has a lot of reckoning to do with how it supports and rewards violent men.Only 29 years young, he is wise. He has done the work to unlearn misogyny and become aware of its perils. This is a man who uses the term hyper-masculinity in interviews. For a football player, this makes you wonder if the Mayans prediction of the world ending is lurking around the corner.Levy has charged his fellow athletes with the task of speaking up on the dehumanization of women. His Man Up piece for The Players Tribune in April makkes it clear what consent is and what its not.dddddddddddd He thinks the NFL should do more about domestic violence awareness.In one of his most remarkable acts of human decency, Levy is donating money to have 11,000 rape kits that were found in a warehouse, abandoned by prosecutors, tested.His stance is clear: Dismissing a description of sexual assault as locker-room talk is a mistake.Wherever the NFL found this man, the league is lucky to have him.Im not in the business of handing out fresh-baked cookies to men for being decent human beings. But acknowledgement is due. Few professional athletes have this level of understanding about misogyny, so this feels magical. It feels like a win for all the work we black feminists have been doing.To preserve my sanity, Ive given up the idea of educating men who dont get it. More than changing minds, as wed hope educating men would do, it brings harassment.Ive been called everything from a Negro bed wench to a b---- for calling men out on their sexism. Discussing rape culture, consent and violence against women has been mostly futile.Remember, I yelled at my own dad over sexism. Levy restored a tiny piece of optimism in me about men -- athletes too -- being able to unlearn the toxicity of patriarchy. His commitment to issues that are typically cast to the side for women to fix alone is a reminder that the work we do is not in vain.Ill remind myself of Levys awakening when I grow weary and think, Whats the point? Because slow change is still change.Being a black feminist deeply committed to the black community and womens rights has been discouraging. Enraging. Even hopeless. Like I said, sometimes I think men will never get it.Levy is proof that they can, though. And while my willingness to teach men is reserved only for the men I care about, I now have a little more faith that they will in turn teach other men. Levy gave me hope that all who wander are not lost. And being lost doesnt mean one has to stay there.Bené Viera is a Brooklyn-based journalist who writes about culture, race and gender. Her work has appeared in GQ, Vulture, ESSENCE, Cosmopolitan, VIBE, Glamour and ELLE. When shes not writing shes stanning for Nas. Follow her on Twitter at @beneviera. ' ' '