Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Chargers, American professional gridiron football team that plays in the American Football Conference (AFC) of the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers are based in the Greater Los Angeles area and have appeared in one Super Bowl (1995).
The Chargers began play in 1960 as one of the original eight members of the upstart American Football League (AFL). The Chargers went 10–4 in their first season and advanced to the inaugural AFL championship game, which they lost to the Houston Oilers. After just one year in Los Angeles, the team relocated to San Diego, where its success continued as it won 12 of its 14 games and again appeared in the AFL title game (and again lost to the Oilers).
The key to the Chargers’ early good fortunes was head coach Sid Gillman, one of the most innovative minds in the history of gridiron football, who led them from their inaugural year through most of 1969 and for part of the 1971 season; he also served as the Chargers’ general manager from 1960 to 1971. Gillman, as coach of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams from 1955 to 1959, had developed the first offense to centre around the downfield pass. He brought this proficient offense to the AFL when he took over the Chargers, and his high-scoring team won division crowns in five of the league’s first six seasons.
In 1963 the Chargers—featuring future Hall of Famers Lance Alworth at wide receiver and Ron Mix at offensive tackle, along with quarterback John Hadl and running back Paul Lowe—won their only AFL title, defeating the Boston Patriots 51–10 in the championship game. During the mid-1960s the team’s play fell off slightly, and, despite finishing with winning records from 1966 through the end of the decade, it never returned to the AFL championships.
The AFL merged with the NFL in 1970, and the Chargers struggled in the expanded league. They did not have a winning season in their first eight years in the NFL, as the team’s formerly potent offense became one of the worst in the league.
The Chargers began to return to past form when they hired Don Coryell as head coach five games into the 1978 season. Coryell reinvigorated the play of quarterback Dan Fouts, who became the centrepiece of an aerial attack that led the league in passing yards for a record six consecutive seasons (1978–83). Also featuring superstars wide receiver Charlie Joiner and tight end Kellen Winslow, the team’s offense (nicknamed “Air Coryell”) propelled the Chargers to four straight postseason berths between 1979 and 1982. They played in two conference championship games over this span, the highlight of which was a defeat of the Miami Dolphins in a seesaw 41–38 divisional playoff contest in January 1982 that many consider one of the greatest NFL games of all time. However, the Coryell Chargers failed to advance to the Super Bowl. Coryell resigned during the 1986 season, amid a nine-year postseason drought for the Chargers.
The Chargers’ return to the playoffs after the 1992 season was notable, as it was the first time in NFL history that a team started with an 0–4 record and rallied to earn a postseason berth. They lost to the Dolphins in their second playoff game that year. Their postseason run after the 1994 season was much more successful. Led by a defense starring All-Pro linebacker Junior Seau, the team won a divisional title and upset the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game en route to the franchise’s first Super Bowl berth. There the Chargers lost soundly to the San Francisco 49ers, 49–26.
The Chargers soon entered one of the worst stretches in franchise history, losing at least 11 games in four of the five years between 1997 and 2001, including a 1–15 season in 2000. The silver lining of the team’s disastrous 2000 season was that the Chargers were in a position to draft running back LaDainian Tomlinson and quarterback Drew Brees in the 2001 NFL draft, and the duo led the team back to the playoffs after the 2004 season. Chargers teams featuring Tomlinson, quarterback Philip Rivers, and tight end Antonio Gates had great regular-season success—including four consecutive AFC West titles from 2006 to 2009—but failed to advance to the Super Bowl. Tomlinson was released in early 2010, and the Chargers’ streak of playoff berths ended the following season. The team returned to the postseason in 2013, but the turnaround was brief: the Chargers finished with the worst record in their division in 2015 (4–12) and 2016 (5–11).
During this time, Chargers owner Dean Spanos battled San Diego politicians over the team’s stadium, which he felt was substandard. He made attempts to get a new stadium built largely with public money, but those efforts failed, and in January 2017 the team announced that it was moving to Los Angeles, despite the fact that the Rams had relocated to the market the previous year and there was little local interest in having a second NFL franchise in the area. During its first season back in Los Angeles, the team was ridiculed by the press and fans for its inability to fill its small temporary stadium, which had been built to house a Major League Soccer team.
However, the product on the field was much improved in 2017, as the Chargers posted a 9–7 record and narrowly missed out on the postseason. In 2018 the Chargers went 12–4, which tied for the best record in the AFC that season. However, the other team with that record was a division rival who won the tie-breaker with Los Angeles (the Kansas City Chiefs), so the Chargers were forced to play all of their postseason games on the road. After winning their wild card contest, the team was eliminated in the divisional round. In the following season, the Chargers lost a number of close games and finished with a division-worst 5–11 record despite boasting one of the most talent-laden rosters in the league that year.
In the 2020 NFL draft, the Chargers selected quarterback Justin Herbert with the sixth overall pick. Over the next several seasons, the team steadily improved, and in 2022 the Chargers went 10–7 and qualified for the playoffs. However, Los Angeles lost in the wild card round. In the 2023 season the Chargers took a step backward, posting a 5–12 record. In the offseason the team hired a new head coach, Jim Harbaugh.