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As we are entering the last doldrum of the NFL offseason before Training Camps begin, there might not be a whole lot of new things to discuss, so I decided that this would be a good time to post this. Now, this was an original post I wrote for another site, but with the new community here and some new faces, I decided to reprise my little story here to get to know some of the new community here at Stormcloud. I apologize to all the transplants from BFTB that might have read this already and have even contributed with your stories, but hopefully we can connect with some new fans here. This original post came about because I noticed that for a team with a supposed "small" fanbase, we had posters from all over the country and even different ones and wondered if there were any great stories associated with becoming Charger fans? It could be anything from family birthright or a favorite player to the time zone or awesome uniform. I know I have a unique story which led to my fandom, so I thought it would be cool to hear yours. I will get us started on this journey into Charger Fandom.
As some of you may know, my name is Erick and I live on the East coast just outside of NYC on Long Island which is just about as far as you could be (in the continental USA) from either San Diego or Los Angeles for that matter. I have been a true fan of the team since I was about 10 years old somewhere around 1986. I guess in a weird way I can attribute my fandom to my father and my pee wee football coach. That was my first season of organized football. I knew how to throw and catch, but knew almost nothing else. Since those were my only redeeming football qualities, I was made the starting WR and the backup QB. Truth be told, I was just happy to get out there with visions of me stiff arming my way into the end zone. When it was time to get uniforms the coach just assigned them based on positions. Since I was also the backup QB I couldn't get a # in the 80's so I was given #14. The kids on the team thought I was so lucky because the New York Jets QB, Richard Todd, was #14. When I got home and showed my dad I said "isn't this cool, I'm like Richard Todd, he's #14 to." My dad, with a look of disgust said "you don't want to be him, that guy sucks." So my natural reply was "OK then who is a good #14?" Without hesitation my dad said "Dan Fouts on San Diego wears #14. He's a QB also and he's great." The only thing I knew about them was the cool helmet with the lightning bolt because I had one of the plastic mini helmets you got for ten cents from the vending machine outside the supermarket. Now my dad was a huge football fan in general and didn't really have a team, but leaned Giants slightly. Without a team being passed down from him, I was able to explore my own fandom. Now, being in the NYC area and having two local teams, we usually only got the Jets and Giants as our two games for the Sunday slate. However, if those games were a blowout or ended a little early the networks would give us bonus coverage from the west coast games that were in the 4th quarter. This is where I was able to get a glimpse of the Chargers in action and I was mesmerized. However, back in the '80s there was no internet or Amazon to be able to order merch of any team, so all that was available to me was Jets and Giants stuff being sold locally. Luckily, my dad was a NYC cop who worked in Mid Town Manhattan which had a store called Jerry Cosby's. There you could get merch of every sports team from posters to jerseys. That is where my favorite Christmas gift from Santa came that year. My San Diego Charger wristbands. I wore them everywhere and especially at every basketball practice and game that season. From there, my Chargers swag collection grew as my dad was a frequent customer at Cosby's. A few years later, they opened up a giant sports bar 5 minutes away that played all the games every Sunday and I was able to follow them even closer than just reading the box scores in the news paper and the rest is history. The growth of the internet and broadcasting has made it easier and easier for me to follow my favorite team from 3,000 miles away to become the fan I am today. Who knows who I would be following as a fan today if my dad never said the words "Dan Fouts." Well that's my story. Now it's time to hear yours. Feel free to add any nuggets of how you became a fan, any cool stories about being a fan or any cool experiences you have as a fan. Anything is fair game and no story or comment is to weird or long. This is YOUR story and I want to know all about it, so lets hear it!!!
Hi Erick! Sorry for the slow response. Glad to hear your story. My name is Mike, and I grew up in Michigan and was a huge Lions and Wolverines fan as a kid. I was one of four kids and the only kid in my home interested in sports. I followed and watched everything growing up. I played every sport offered except for hockey, which my family could not afford to put me into. Of course, that was my favorite sport. I grew up reading baseball box scores in the Detroit News and was a bit of a sports freak. The Lions were traditionally bad, but I hung in there. The Wolverines were always in the hunt in the Big Ten with Ohio State. On the rare occasions when the late games came on, I got to see the Chargers and early Air Coryell. It was the sexiest damn football I had ever seen. The sunshine, the uniforms, the passing and scoring. I immediately fell in love. I had also visited Carlsbad, CA where my two uncles owned a beach house, and I spent two weeks with them as a 13-year-old one summer and immediately knew I wanted to live in California. After High School I loaded up my Jeep CJ7 and drove to So-Cal. I played a year of JC football and tore up my shoulder and then just focused on my academics. I still root for the Lions, but the Chargers became my team back in 1978. I have remained a Wolverines fan my whole life. I attended my first games at Jack Murphy stadium back in the day and eventually was a 25-year season ticket holder including the first two-years at the soccer complex in Carson. I have eventually moved myself and my wife to Bigfork, Montana and am still working but living in a less populated and better spot for me at this point in my life. I really only follow one sport with the same passion and that is the NFL and the Chargers. I have always hated the Raiders even when I was a Lions fan. I just hated them from day one. Being a Chargers fan that hatred has continued on. So now I watch every game including preseason games, I watch the draft, I can never seem to get enough. I have five adult children and just had my 9th grandchild last week and that has kept me extremely busy for decades. I have raised them all as Charger fans. I have never really adopted any type of social media, blogs or anything of that nature as I have never really had time. I joined the BFTB site about 5-years ago and have enjoyed the camaraderie of what I would consider the "serious fans". Stormcloud is just an extension of that. I hope to meet up with you guys at some point, either at a Charger game or for a beer up here in Bigfork.
@spanos-must-go Thanks for sharing this Mike!
Two things stood out to me:
- Carlsbad, CA. This is where Kyle De lives and, like you, it was my first true exposure to California (and, to American hospitality). The way Kyle and his wife treated me (and mine) on our honeymoon is something I'll never forget. Nor will I forget watching the Chargers v Titans game with Kyle in his man cave, nor the stunning view of the Pacific Ocean as Kyle drove us around Carlsbad and it's surrounding suburbs. Such a beautiful spot.
- You live in Montana! Before you think my excitement is driven by Yellowstone, it's not 😆 We receive data analytics for our pod and I always see one red dot in the great state of Montana indicating we have a listener there - it must be you! A fun fact, we've had at least one TDU episode download in 43 of the 50 US States. The ones we're still trying to capture are Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. All in good time...
@alisterlloyd very cool that you’ve been to Carlsbad. It’s changed a bit since I went there in 1976, but it is still very beautiful and fun.
I’m about 30 miles from Glacier National Park and I’ve listened to many of your podcasts right at my desk here in Bigfork. Also on my phone while sitting on my deck. My wife loves the accents and the fact that we have great international fans. If you guys ever make it up here, drinks are on me.
@spanos-must-go Wow Mike. Thanks for sharing your awesome story. Man, I would have loved to have season tickets for the Bolts. I see so many of my friends and co workers regularly getting to go to Jet and Giant games and I am jealous of their easy access to the games amongst the home town fans. I have been to see the Chargers twice when they have traveled to the East coast vs Pittsburgh (Sun night game in 2018) and the '21 season opener in DC. I plan on going this year vs NE since my son will be home on Christmas break from college. Looking forward to more of your posts. Thanks for contributing.
@evolz3737 Erick, one of the toughest things that I experienced as a Charger season ticket holder was "the other team's fans". I hated that aspect of being at games. It obviously happened less when the Chargers were winning a lot. When they weren't it was a disciplined approach. My wife and I had to really get ourselves into a "sticks and stones" approach prior to every game. It was super frustrating to run into "Charger" fans that regularly sold their tickets to the opposing team's fans and didn't care. Sometimes those fans were ok/decent people and other times they were not. We were close to more than one fight and many times had derogatory things said to us. Our worst experiences were when the Raiders were in town. In fact, my wife stopped attending those games and I would usually take a serious Charger fan who understood what was going to happen and that I could trust would be able to not draw us into a fight. The Eagles fans were bad as well and one actually stood up, turned around, and flipped my wife the bird and told me, "fuck you and your trailer trash wife". He was looking for a fight and we had never spoken a word to him. Just cheered loudly. The rows below us and above us all waived goodbye to him and his wife while they both flipped everyone off and said, "fuck you" to everyone as they passed them. Obviously, the Chargers won that game. I went to the Raiders game the year they went to the Super Bowl (late in the season and the Chargers were already toast) and lost to Tampa Bay (got whipped) and I remember rolling into the "Q" and being stunned that the fans had taken over the parking lot. I regularly tailgated and it was all silver and black and smoke spilling off of bbq's and a wild celebration. I parked, popped my chair out and sat there with my buddy and it was pretty bad. Couples walking past us dropping f-bombs. Women with kids walking by with arms extended flipping me the bird. It was really really bad. I remember that day thinking how hard it was to be a Charger fan and would we ever have our day.
Ok, sorry about that stroll down season ticket lane. I might have a little PTSD when it comes to that part of fandom. Someday there will be a parade and I will be there as long as I'm alive. FTR!!! I mean that with all my heart!!!
@spanos-must-go I always believed that one reason the Chargers had issues with away fans was because of 2 reasons: The location and the fans. Being an East Coast guy, I can tell you that winters here suck. Not everywhere here is necessarily winter wonderlands packed with feet of snow like the have in Upstate New York or northern New England (which is a real pain in the ass IMO). Most places are just cold, damp and dreary. Lots of freezing rain type days. Not necessarily a tourists dream to come watch their team in an outdoor stadium. I would much rather go to see my team play on the road in a warm weather stadium. This is why I think the Raiders moving to Vegas was brilliant. For a ton of people, Vegas is a yearly destination. If I lived in Cleveland for example and I go there every year, why go in April when I can go in November AND catch a Browns game? Plus, tons of people who aren't necessarily fans of the Raiders or the team they are playing will still go to an NFL game while in town. No matter how shitty the team is, the stadium will always be full.
Plus the prices here are astronomical. Now I am not a regular ticket holder for any team, but I do try to get to 3-4 Yankees games every year. An average game there is $50-65 for each third level seat, $50 to park, BEFORE the hijack at the concessions. Can't forget the added $$ for tolls each way also. To go to a game with just my son is a $200 bill minimum.
Lastly, for all accounts, So Cal fans just seem to be more chill and not necessarily as die hard for sports as the fans on the East Coast. Even when the Jets and Giants are terrible, the stadium is still 85% home team fans. And that stadium is an absolute disaster to get in and out of. Again, you get kicked in the balls with tolls each way and there is one road in to the stadium from the East and one from the West, which means depending which way you came from, there is one way out. You either go West further into Jersey to then decide your route home or you go East toward the city before finding your route home. The traffic is always horrendous getting there, even on a Sunday. The stadium is 31 miles from my house, but going to a 1PM game I would need to leave my house at 9AM and I probably get into the parking lot between 11:15-11:30. A game ending at 4PM and I am looking at pulling into my driveway around 6:30 if everything goes smooth. Shit Show.
This "Die Hard" mentality goes for Philly, NE, Buffalo, Baltimore and Washington as well. I went to the Chargers game in Washington for the '21 season opener, when the fans couldn't stand Dan Snyder and the stadium was (and still is) a complete dump and it was 95% Washington fans. I attended a Ravens game in Baltimore 2 years ago when they were playing the Browns. Again, 85% Raven fans. (In fact the most popular jersey hands down is Tucker). Maybe it is because there is more to do in a warm weather climate all year, so football isn't the winter attraction it is out here, but it seems that there are more tickets available for out of town fans there.
Hopefully the team can get its roots down in LA and become a solid, supporting, rabid fan base that keeps their tickets for games. It would be nice shedding the "team with no fans" moniker and even dare I say, make SoFi a difficult place for visiting teams to play. Hopefully we are on the track to get there.
I was in high school 62 or 63 and not really a fan but was following the LA Rams. At that time I lived in Poway.Somehow when the AFL started I just followed the chargers ,maybe it was Sid Gillman,the high scoring offense ,I was just drawn to them. I attended a few games at balboa stadium, all high scoring affairs.
They only won one champion ship but were competitive for a few years. I still remember Sid Gillmans quotes after a loss "we just need to execute better". sounds so much like the last few seasons. I got off the band wagon for a few years , still followed but not so much ,there were some really bad years late 60's earl 70's. Then came the chant "Coryell saves". Man did I jump back on and have been there ever since. The changes made this off season have me pumped.
thanks for starting this forum. Iam not going to be much of a poster but will be here almost everyday
Very cool to have you weigh in Jay!! And awesome to have you here every day. Please chime in as much as possible. I for one, would love to read about your perspective since you have been a fan since day one.
Not gonna lie. I am a hometown team fan. Born and raised in East L.A. You’re my home team, I’m behind you 100%. In the late 70’s/early 80’s, that was the Rams. Though the Chargers, as nearby neighbors, I favored more than others. That playoff game against the Dolphins, with Kellen Winslow blocking the FG kick, was one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen. Don Coryell also was the HC of my alma mater, Whittier College, before going on to the NFL.
So then the Rams leave LA for Anaheim and then St. Louis and The Traitors come to LA. I was a Traitor fan for a short period and enjoyed their SB year here (Bo Jackson was awesome). But when things went south and Al Davis blamed LA fans for costing his team 7 points a game, and scurried back to Oakland, they became my mortal enemy. F that dude. You don’t talk about me and my peeps that way. I’m LA., through and through. You talk shit about me and my peeps? You can go straight to hell. Which is where FTR belong.
So I rooted for no NFL team for many, many years. I’m not one of those people that roots for a team not in the city where they live. That’s just not me. We’re all different, but that’s just the way I am. No judgment on others’ preferences.
So when both the Rams and Bolts came back to LA, I chose the Bolts, for personal reasons. Went to Dignity Health Stadium with my buddy who was always a Bolts fan (he’s young enough he never knew another NFL team in LA, so chose the nearest franchise in SD). So I’ve been a die-hard Bolts fan since 2017. Because they represent my hometown. And I’m all about my hometown. So I’m all about the Bolts.
Hi....I'm Buck and I'm a Chargerholic.
Symptoms include: hysteria, heart palpitations, cold sweats, fatigue, wild mood swings, mania, liver failure, anxiety, depression
Hey Erick, I love the "Who are you" type posts! I wish that I saw it earlier. Thanks for putting it up. It's always fascinating to hear about other fans. Some of the Family here might my know my story from similar posts on BFTB or from meeting me in person. I'll keep it brief.
My name is John and I'm from New Bedford, MA. I've been a Bolts fan since I was about 13 or 14 years old. My family thought I was crazy then, and they still do. After I left the Army, I moved to San Diego for a short time and I did go to games at the "Q". I moved to LA and so did the team. I got season seats starting the 1st season at Stub Hub. Now, I'm ready for the new era to begin!!!
Thanks, Mike. You're a real bright spot in our Bolt Fam.
I grew up in NC, with no local team. (The Panthers came much later.) We were forcefed the Redskins, and I hated that. I was a NFL fan and would have preferred to see the best non-NFC East games.
Initially, Steve Largent was my favorite player, so I followed Seattle, but loosely. I was still living in NC when the Panthers started, so I switched over to following them, but only due to proximity, not really due to any true fandom for the team.
I am a NC State alum, and Philip Rivers is my favorite NC State player of all time, so when the Chargers traded for him on draft day in 2004, that sealed it... I became a Chargers fan. Because it was Rivers-driven, I kind of anticipated that my Chargers fandom would fade once he moved to the Colts, but, surprisingly, it didn't. I had invested too much into understanding and rooting for the team to quit at that point and try to start over with another team.
Coincidentally, we moved from Virginia Beach to San Diego in 2014 and lived there until 2018, when we moved back to VB. Fortunately, this enabled me to go to some Chargers games. Unfortunately, this means I lived there when the exodus to LA happened, and that was unpleasant. Somehow, they hooked me enough to stick with them even in LA rather than SD and without Rivers.
Go Chargers!
@tau837 thank goodness you stayed! You add so much to this site and BFTB. I felt your passion about Keenan when they traded him. There is no doubt that you are invested!
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