I've been a Charger fan since 1980, during the Air Coryell days.
The San Diego Chargers of the late 1970s and early ‘80s featured one of the most explosive and exciting offenses that ever set foot on an NFL field. The unit became known as “Air Coryell” because of the passing attack devised by head coach Don Coryell.
Danny Fouts, the best quarterback ever to not play in a Super Bowl. What a shame.
I remember when they changed uniform colors, from the powder blue to the dark blue. I kept adjusting the color, but when I got the field the proper green, the blue was dark. When I got the blue almost right, all the rest of the colors where whack. When the announcer commented, about 15 minutes into the game, that the Chargers had changed their uniform colors ... I almost fell out of my chair! Half an hour of wicked adjustments, for naught!
Then there was the time when I lived in Portland, Oregon, and one Mondy Night Football game between the Chargers and their number one nemises, the Raiders. Unbeknownst to me, the games in Portland started at a different time than the rest of the Pacific Time Zone, so while I was having these telephonic update/bets with my mother in Los Angeles, I was not aware that we were watching the same game, except that I was watching it later than she was.
The Chargers were kicking butt the entire game, and at the third quarter, were up, I don't know, perhaps 21 points or something ridiculous. I remember calling my mom, when the game after the third quarter to gloat, and she was laughing and told me the Raiders won. I was like, what? I didn't believe her, but after I watched the fourth quarter, I was sick to my stomach.
Then of course, there is my favorite game, a playoff game with Miami. The images of Kellen Winslow being helped off the field with two players is seared in my brain.
In a 1982 (1981 season), playoff game against the Miami Dolphins that became known as The Epic In Miami, Winslow caught a playoff record 13 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown, while also blocking a field goal with seconds remaining to send the game to overtime in one of the greatest single player efforts in Chargers history. What made Winslow's performance all the more memorable was that fact during the game he was treated for a pinched nerve in his shoulder, dehydration, severe cramps, and received three stitches in his lower lip. After the game, a picture of Winslow being helped off the field by his teamates became an enduring image in NFL Lore.
Rolf Benirschke's 29-yard field ended the game after 13:52 of overtime.
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