While thousands of GLBT athletes evacuated their homes, fleeing possibly the most devastating fires our state has ever seen, it’s hard to think of anything other than the fear and grief permanently fused to these events.

These past days, my inbox has been inundated with messages from teammates blasting updates regarding the proximity of the wildfires to their properties, their updated evacuation plans, and whether or not they even had a home to come back to.

Upon return, some athletes with whom I’m personally acquainted found only burnt shells in the place they used to call home.

Heeding officials’ pleas to stay off the phone lines, GLTB sporting leagues e-mailed updates about the status of their activities.

Perhaps the most notable change was the last-minute postponement of the San Diego Tennis Federation (SDTF) Club Championship Singles Tournament, which was to have taken place last weekend.

In an e-mail to SDTF members, club president Allen Sanchez explained that the questionable air quality was the impetus for the decision.

“The forecasts show air quality will only get worse in the next few days,” Sanchez wrote last Friday. The tournament will be rescheduled to a later date. Visit www.sdtf.org for more updates.

The fires also necessitated adjustments by the San Diego Hoops. The GLBT basketball league was originally slated to host a “scouting night” last week for new players to showcase their skills in front of league coaches. However, because of poor air quality, that event has been pushed back to Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. at Alliant University.

The Draft Party, which was supposed to happen Sunday, Oct. 28, has now been moved to Sunday, Nov. 4. The Hoops’ season was scheduled to begin Nov. 1, but has been pushed back two weeks to Nov. 15.

Ironically, in just this past issue, I wrote about the league and outlined its schedule for the upcoming months. All that changed in a flash. To find out more about the updated schedule, visit www.sdhoops.net.

Much has been made in recent days about the displacement of iconic San Diego athletes from their homes. Tony Gwynn and Bruce Bochy were among the more than half million residents who were forced to evacuate.

According to cnnsi.com, some 46 Chargers players, coaches and staff members had to evacuate their suburban homes starting early last Monday morning. Among them were head coach Norv Turner, quarterback Philip Rivers, running back LaDainian Tomlinson, linebacker Shawne Merriman and general manager A.J. Smith.

This sent the surreal world of “sports media” into a dizzying discussion about the “appropriateness” of the Chargers playing a home football game last Sunday against the Houston Texans.

Concerns were raised about projected air quality, as well as the reality that 60,000 people in a stadium requires the supervision of fire and police crews who were, at best, stretched to their limitations already and could probably have used some sleep. To really complicate the issue, it was unclear until late last Thursday afternoon just how long Qualcomm Stadium would need to serve as an evacuation center.

These facts stirred a pointless debate among the pundits at ESPN, local radio call-in shows, and even other sports columnists in the area as to whether the game should be cancelled, moved or postponed.

Union-Tribune sports writer Nick Canepa was unflinching in his column last Friday when he strongly argued the game must be played, and that it must be played in San Diego. “[For the Chargers] to give up a home game – only if they don’t have to, and it appears they don’t – would be a kidney punch to their fans and players,” he wrote.

While I agree the game must be played, I am not as fervent a believer in thinking the game can only be played in America’s Fieriest City. In fact, I think the game’s location is only a story because the sports media has nothing else to talk about.

For days, we San Diegans had been barraged with unbelievable images of fire literally raining down, and of dreams, quite literally, going up in flames.

Regardless of where it was played, the Chargers game was going to be an escape from all that: one small but important step back on the path to normalcy.

Such is the role of sports in our culture during times of crisis. It serves as a diversion. It gives a city like ours the chance to be identified by its Ambassador LaDainian Tomlinson, and not by violent images of out-of-control fires.

During the Cedar Fire in 2003, the Chargers were scheduled to play a Monday night game against the Miami Dolphins at Qualcomm Stadium. That game was moved to Arizona and was played where the Cardinals played at the time, Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. The Cardinals opened the stadium to the general public for free, and encouraged everyone who attended to make a donation at the door to help the victims of the fires in San Diego.

More than $2 million was raised for fire relief, but most importantly, it was the first step toward moving on.

It didn’t matter where the game was held, it only mattered that it was played. Why isn’t that model OK for this time around? Only because columnists such as Canepa, the so-called “experts” at the “world-wide leader in sports” and moronic callers into sports-talk radio who fan the flames of this discussion decided to make the location of the game an imperative.

Sure, the game had to be played, and a decision had to be made as to where, but why the outcry? Why was it so important? The only reason the game’s location will ever matter was because the sports media found itself bereft of anything else to talk about.

People only cared about where the game was going to be played because sports media personalities told them they should.

I’m as big a Chargers fan as anyone, and a bigger football fan than most. But I also believe the Spanos family is about as good a corporate citizen as the Ebola virus. If they lose some money, I’m not exactly going to lose any sleep. But hey, when you sue the city for a ticket guarantee and therefore take away money that could have been allocated to such lavish luxuries as paying police and firefighters a living wage, I can be a little bitter.

But hey, that’s just me.