Patrick Allen's story on the Chargers emailing him and encouraging him to buy tickets to the Chiefs-Chargers game in San Diego this season has been making the rounds this week, all the way to the Chargers owner, A.G. Spanos.

Asked about marketing tickets to Chiefs fans, Spanos admitted that the email did come from the Chargers.

"This was an overeager sales rep, I would say, who was selling groups," Spanos said. "He acted on his own without checking with his manager. We have sold to visiting fan groups in the past. We don't proactively solicit them for new business. That's not a standard practice of the Chargers."

It was standard practice on at least one occasion, though. What had me confused is that they didn't send an email to this website, which is 10 times the size.

"I was disappointed the story made headlines. It paints the organization in a poor light, and that's not how we operate. Our goal is to maximize our home-field advantage. But I'm grateful to clarify our policies with our sales reps. ... That's not a policy of ours, to go out and seek business from visiting teams' sites."

The real story from the Chargers is about what I expected, blaming it on a sales rep. I actually guessed this would be blamed on an intern.

Speaking of interns...Chris, where's my coffee this morning?