The San Diego Chargers are a professional football team based in San Diego, California. They have been members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in theNational Football League (NFL) since 1970. The club began play in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League, and spent its first season in Los Angeles, California before moving to San Diego in 1961.[2] The Chargers play their home games at Qualcomm Stadium. The Chargers continue to be the only NFL team based in Southern California, with no teams in Los Angeles since 1994.
The Chargers won one AFL title in 1963 and reached the AFL playoffs five times and the AFL Championship four times before joining the NFL (1970) as part of the AFL-NFL Merger.[2] In the 34 years since then, the Chargers have made ten trips to the playoffs and four appearances in the AFC Championship game.[2] At the end of the 1994 season, the Chargers faced the San Francisco 49ers inSuper Bowl XXIX and fell 49–26.[2] The Chargers have six players and one coach enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio: wide receiver Lance Alworth (1962–1970), defensive endFred Dean (1975–1981), quarterback Dan Fouts (1973–1987), head coach/general manager Sid Gillman (1960–1969, 1971), wide receiver Charlie Joiner (1976–1986), offensive lineman Ron Mix(1960–1969) and tight end Kellen Winslow (1979-1987).
The San Diego Chargers were established with seven other American Football League teams in 1959. In 1960, the Chargers began AFL play in Los Angeles.[2] The Chargers' original owner was hotel heir Barron Hilton, son of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton.[2]
According to the official site of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Barron Hilton agreed after his general manager, Frank Leahy, picked the Chargers name when he purchased an AFL franchise for Los Angeles: “I liked it because they were yelling ‘charge’ and sounding the bugle at Dodgers Stadium and at USC games.” The Chargers played in Los Angeles in 1960 and moved to San Diego in 1961. From 1961 to 1966 their home field was Balboa Stadium in Balboa Park. As of August 1967 they moved to the newly constructed Qualcomm Stadium (then named San Diego Stadium), where they still play their home games.
The Chargers only spent one season in Los Angeles before moving to San Diego in 1961.[2] The early AFL years of the San Diego Chargers were highlighted by the outstanding play of wide receiver Lance Alworth with 543 receptions for 10,266 yards in his 11-AFL/NFL-season career. In addition he set the pro football record of consecutive games with a reception (96) during his career.[4]
Their only coach for the ten year life of the AFL was Sid Gillman,[2] a Hall of Famer.[5] who was considered the foremost authority on the forward passing offense of his era.[5] With players such as Alworth, Paul Lowe, Keith Lincoln and John Hadl,[6] the high-scoring Chargers won divisional crowns five of the league’s first six seasons and the AFL title in 1963 with a 51–10 victory over theBoston Patriots.[2] They also played defense, as indicated by their professional football record 49 pass interceptions in 1961,[7] and featured AFL Rookie of the Year defensive end Earl Faison.[8] The Chargers were the originators of the term "Fearsome Foursome" to describe their all-star defensive line,[citation needed] anchored by Faison and Ernie Ladd (the latter also excelled in professional wrestling).[9] The phrase was later appropriated by the Los Angeles Rams.[10] Hilton sold the Chargers to a group headed by Eugene Klein and Sam Schulman in August 1966.[11] The following year the Chargers began "head to head" competition with the older NFL with a preseason loss to the Detroit Lions.[2] The Chargers defeated the defending Super Bowl III champion New York Jets 34–27 before a record San Diego Stadium crowd of 54,042 on September 29, 1969.[2] Alworth once again led the team in receptions with 64 and 1,003 yards with four touchdowns.[2] The team also saw Gillman step down due to health and offensive backfield coach Charlie Waller promoted to head coach after the completion of the regular season. Gillman did remain with the club as the general manager.[2]
[edit]1970–78: Post-merger
In 1970, the San Diego Chargers were placed into the AFC West division after the NFL merger with the AFL.[11][12] But by then, the Chargers fell on hard times; Gillman, who had returned as general manager, stepped down in 1971, and many of the Charger players from the 1960s had already either retired or had been traded.[13] The Chargers acquired veteran players like Deacon Jones[14] andJohnny Unitas,[15] however it was at the later stages of their careers and the team struggled, placing third or fourth in the AFC West each year from 1970 to 19781978
1978 was marked by the "Holy Roller" game, or as Chargers fans call it, the "Immaculate Deception". It was a game-winning play executed by the Oakland Raiders against the Chargers on September 10, in San Diego at Jack Murphy Stadium.[16] With 10 seconds left in the game, the Raiders had possession of the ball at the Chargers' 14-yard line, down 20–14. Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler took the snap and found himself about to be sacked by Chargers linebacker Woodrow Lowe on the 24-yard line. Stabler fumbled the ball forward, and it rolled forward towards the San Diego goal line. Running back Pete Banaszak tried to recover the ball on the 12-yard line, but could not keep his footing, and the ball was pushed even closer to the end zone. Raiders tight end Dave Casper was the next player to reach the ball but he also could not get a hand on it. He batted and kicked the ball into the end zone, where he fell on it for the game-tying touchdown as time ran out. With the ensuing extra point by kicker Errol Mann, the Raiders won 21–20.[16] What many Charger fans believed should have been called an incomplete pass (and possibly intentional grounding) was seen as a fumble and the rest of the play involved batting of the ball forward towards the end zone where the Raiders ultimately recovered it for a touchdown.[16] As a result of this play, NFL rules were changed so that, in the last two minutes of a half or game, the only offensive player allowed to advance a fumble is the player who originally fumbled. If any other offensive player recovers the fumble and advances the ball, after the play the line of scrimmage is the spot of the original fumble.
2010 was the 1st season without LaDainian Tomlinson since 2000 (let go by management due to an over-sized contract relative to production and other issues, he went on to lead the Jets in rushing with 914 yards & tied for 3rd in receptions with 52). The 2010 campaign started off slowly again, this time 2–5 (including losses to some of the worst teams in football at the time – KC, OAK, SEA & STL). The losses were due to turnovers & mental mistakes by young players on special teams allowing blocked punts & kick/punt return TD's. The loss to Oakland ended their 13 game winning streak against the Raiders since their last loss on September 28, 2003.[61] The Chargers then went on another second half run with four straight wins but this time instead of keeping the streak going the entire second half they had a big let down losing at home to the Raiders again, this time 28–13 (ending their shared NFL record, with the Dolphins, of 18 straight wins in December).[62] Despite the loss, they still had a chance to win their 5th straight AFC West title, tying the Raiders, but they had another bad loss at the Bengals 34–20 ending their chances. The Chargers beat Denver to end the season with a 9–7 record & out of the playoffs for the first time since 2005. They finished the season as the 8th team in NFL history to rank #1 in overall offense (395.6 yards/game), and overall defense (271.6 yards/game), and became only the 2nd of those teams to not make the playoffs (1953 Eagles 7–4–1).[63]They were second to the Colts in passing yards per game (282.4), second to the Patriots in points scored per game (27.6), 1st in passing yards allowed per game (177.8), 4th in rushing yards allowed per game (93.8), and tied for 2nd in sacks (47). On the negative stat sheet, they gave up the most punt return yards per game (18.9) & had 29 turnovers.[64] Philip Rivers had another great season with a career-high 4,710 yards (#1 in the NFL), 294 yards passing per game (tied for 1st with Manning), 66% completion pct. (third to Brees & Manning), 30 TD's, only 13 INT's & a 101.8 passer rating (second to Brady). Mike Tolbert 11 rushing TD's & Antonio Gates 10 receiving TD's were among the league leaders in TD's scored. On defense, Shaun Phillips' 11 sacks were in the top 10.[65]
With the special teams failure of the 2010 season campaign, the Chargers hoped to rebound with a strong performance to start the season, and a way to overcome slow starts.
[edit]2011
The Chargers started off the 2011 season with a 4-1 campaign, with their only loss to the New England Patriots. From that point on, however, the Chargers began a six game skid with losses to the Jets, Chiefs, Packers, Raiders, Bears and Broncos with the first four by only a score and against Denver in overtime. Injuries to both the offensive and the defensive line have hit the Chargers hard. But finally on December 5, 2011, the Chargers got their first win in over a month against the Jacksonville Jaguars, beating their also-struggling team. The Chargers then began a three game winning streak most notably beating the Ravens by more than any team has beat them this season. However, the Chargers were beaten, 38-10, by the Detroit Lions to drop their record to 7-8 and eliminate the possibility of being in the playoffs. After a 38-26 victory over the Raiders in week 17, the Chargers finished at 8-8 and in a numerical tie for first place in the AFC West along with Oakland and Denver. However, the Chargers were beaten out by Denver for the Division Title via tie-breaker.
[edit]2012
On October 21, 2012, a line judge saw what he thought was a suspicious substance on hand towels used by the players. If the NFL determined the Chargers were using banned adhesives during game time, they would've suffered the consequences, such as a fine or loss of an important draft pick for next season.[66] However, on November 7, the league announced that the Chargers did not cheat, though the team was fined $20,000.[67] After missing the playoffs for the third straight season in 2012, the Chargers fired general manager Smith and head coach Turner.[68]
[edit]2013
On January 9, 2013, the Chargers announced that Tom Telesco, former Vice President of Football Operations with the Indianapolis Colts, would take over as General Manager following the firing of A.J. Smith. On January 15, Denver offensive coordinator Mike McCoy was hired as the new head coach and Ken Whisenhunt as Offensive coordinator
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