Chargers Collect Back-To-School Donations For OC Boys & Girls

COSTA MESA, CA — Fans who visit the Los Angeles Chargers training camp practices Saturday and Sunday are invited to donate school supplies for a fundraising drive. The Orange County Boys & Girls Club, as well as the Los Angeles County Boys & Girls Clubs will be the beneficiaries of the drive, according to the league.

Items sought include (but are not limited to):

• backpacks
• pens
• pencils
• notebooks
• folders
• highlighters
• crayons
• glue/glue sticks

Bring your school supplies to the weekend practices held at the Jack Hammett Sports Complex in Costa Mesa, both days are scheduled for 10 a.m.-noon.

Fans may pre-register for free training camp tickets at www.chargers.com or register in person at the entrance to the complex.

Note! All bleacher seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Chargers will hold their second training camp practice of 2019 on Friday.

In Thursday's practice "I didn't want to go zero to 100 on the first day back, so we kind of eased our way into it," coach Anthony Lynn said. "Tomorrow (Friday), we'll be full-go."

Running back Melvin Gordon was still notably absent at Thursday's practice as he seeks a new contract. The two-time Pro Bowl selected player missed Wednesday's training camp deadline and was placed on the reserve/did not report list.

Gordon is in the last year of his contract, a fifth-year option worth $5.6 million, according to ESPN, and will demand a trade if he does not receive a new contract, his agent Fletcher Smith said.

Gordon is subject to fines of $40,000 per day missed of camp under terms of the league's collective bargaining agreement.

"We don't like to talk about players that aren't here," Lynn said after Thursday's approximately two-hour practice. "We understand his situation. We love Melvin. We're a good football team with Melvin, but he's not here."

Lynn said he did not think Gordon's absence will be a distraction.

Offensive tackle Russell Okung, who disclosed Thursday on Twitter that he suffered a pulmonary embolism caused by blood clots in June, was sidelined on the opening days of practice.

"After experiencing unusual chest pain at practice June 1, I went to urgent care out of an abundance of caution," Okung wrote. "According to the doctors who treated me, the decision to do so likely saved my life."

Okung, 30, wrote that he is "feeling great physically."

"As soon as doctors clear me, my plans include blocking #17's blind side all the way to Miami," Okung wrote, referring to quarterback Philip Rivers and the site of February's Super Bowl.

Okung is at training camp, attending meetings and "helping with the young guys," Lynn said.