It was a Sunday in January. One of those winter days with the blinding sunshine minus the warmth. The kind of day that left eyes at half-mast in each photograph. Air just crisp enough for a jacket. We were in the Mission Valley corridor an area known for its relentless on-shore flow rolling in from the Pacific. My tie danced from left to right.
It was a special Sunday. No fewer than six weeks ago our family had expanded and today was the day we would have our newborn daughter baptized. A memorable day for all of our attending family and friends who would each bear witness and then gather for brunch to discuss the rest of the day. The topic of discussion would no doubt turn to our 14-2 San Diego Chargers and how they would fare against the visiting New England Patriots after coming off the first round bye. On January 14th, 2007 there would have been consensus that the Patriots were the team of the decade...but during the 2006 season they didn't look to be anything special. We felt great about our Bolts.
From where we stood looking northeast, it was a hop across Interstate 8, a skip over the San Diego River and a jump over OMBAC's rugby pitch to get to Qualcomm Stadium---that old dilapidated multi-purpose monstrosity--an ode to concrete. Today it is dispassionately called the "Q" but growing up we referenced it otherwise: The Murph.
As kids we went to what was then called Jack Murphy Stadium to see the Padres and the Chargers play. To the stadium that bore the name of what sounded like a tough Irish Boxer we would visit to see season after season of mediocre Friar teams......not so much the Chargers though.....it would take me a while, as a transplant, to warm to them. To be expected, I came from Chicago Bear country. While I suffered through mediocrity in the mid-west the last season I lived there they won the final game of the season. It was a pretty big game...... played in New Orleans...... against the same New England Patriots franchise the Chargers would face today.
As a kid the mantra of every high school was "To The Murph" or some derivative there of because it was the location of the CIF High School football championships each year. It was our collective dream to play in The Murph to be on His field to win glory. Who was Jack Murphy? I would discover that he was a writer. A columnist and the sports editor for the San Diego Union newspaper. It is said that there was no bigger influence on bringing both the Chargers and the Padres to San Diego than the touch of this man. He got in the ear of Barron Hilton and convinced him that San Diego was ready for professional football and away they moved from LA after that one season in 1960. This new AFL team would quickly establish itself as an exciting franchise and would bring the "little suburb of Los Angeles" an AFL Championship in 1963 against who else but-----the Boston Patriots.
As the '60s passed Jack Murphy would later convince the powers that be that San Diego was ready for MLB and in 1968 an expansion franchise would be awarded to San Diego. We are celebrating the Padres 4oth season as we speak.....40 years of brutal futility.
In summation: when you transform a town into a city by bringing two professional franchises to San Diego and you are considered one of the greats at your craft you get a stadium named after you.
However, as that city approaches the new millennium and your stadium needs a face lift so that it can be granted future Super Bowls you turn to corporations for that money....and when this is done, you OWE the corporation.......so the new stadium with the face lift is now called Qualcomm Stadium. What about our beloved Jack Murphy? Well he's been supplanted by big corporate communications but not forgotten. We know that games are held at Qualcomm Stadium but they are played on Jack Murphy Field ....and as further evidence of Murphy's influence there was a bronze statue dedicated in 2003. All those who flood from the MTS Trolley can view Jack Murphy and his dog Abe of Spoon River before entering the Q on game day.
I'll not bore you with all of the details of a family get together other than saying that it was quaint and for the most part memorable. I don't recall the sermon that followed the baptism but I do recall the Minister asking the The Father for a little help on behalf of the Chargers that afternoon. How inappropriate during a church service! The Chargers were 14-2 and needed no otherworldly intervention......it was the Ministers of the east that should have been lobbying The Almighty.
We hit the brunch said our goodbyes and left to watch football. In 2006 we had the NFL's MVP, a 1st year starting QB who was playing mistake free football, and a defense that wrought havoc in the form of constant pressure and many turnovers. This particular Sunday however, would not be ours. We lost for a multitude of reasons but no error was more egregious than Marlon McCree's interception as 4th quarter minutes ticked away only to have Troy Brown's hand of God punch the ball loose giving Tom Brady another chance; Brady then did what Brady does; Nate Kaeding's FG attempt would ultimately fall short and our winter commenced.
But here's what I remember most........The New England Patriots had acquitted themselves well over the previous years as three time Super Bowl Champions always showing that they were above the fray, expressing themselves as a team rather than a collection of individuals. On January 14th, 2007 some of New England's players gathered at the center of Jack Murphy Field where the vanquished and victorious always meet to congratulate and wish each other well. In this precise spot where post game prayers and slaps on the rear take place, Patriot players began to dance and mock the dance of Shawne Merriman**. If this was done on the sideline to taunt Charger Fans I probably would have laughed but because it was at the center of the field, the gauntlet was thrown down. It was the last thing I would have ever expected from a Patriot franchise that had so famously shunned individual introductions during the 2001 Super Bowl and opted to walk out as a team instead. That 2001 team was a team I respected.
This was not 2001. LT blew a head gasket as did I and most other Charger Fans (See above picture). The 2006 league MVP famously uttered this quote during postgame interviews:
"I would never react in that way. I was very upset," Tomlinson said. "When you go to the middle of our field and start doing the dance Shawne Merriman is known for, that is disrespectful. They showed no class and maybe that comes from the head coach."
Maybe LT's tirade was a good thing....it got our minds off of that crushing defeat and our collective ire was then directed at the New England Patriots. It's funny how the actions of one or two players can create an entirely new portrait of a team.....it's not really rational but neither is being a sports fan.
I went to the movies after the game. I can't recall what I saw but I do know that my mind was preoccupied by the playoff loss. It was the combination of the loss and my new view of the Patriots that ate away at me. The only way I could reconcile these feelings was to write about it and with any luck the action would provide a catharsis for me. So on that day the seeds of this blog were sewn. I wrote an email and sent it out to all of my friends including one of my closest friends who happened to be from Boston---I do not hold this against him.
Emails flew back and forth with witty banter promoting one flurry after another. In the first email I mentioned the disgrace at the center of Jack Murphy Field and called on fellow Charger Fans to join me in Foxborough, Massachusetts the next season to avenge the playoff loss. By the time I wrote my second email (rant) in response to Mr. Lewis I was signing the emails as Jack Murphy's Avengers not really knowing how many would join me at Gilette Stadium.....I was prepared to go alone. When it was all said and done many expressed interest but it was a group of six who rallied together for the trip......they would tour under the nom de guerre of Jack Murphy's Avengers.
We made the trip to Foxborough and watched the Bolts get throttled on September 16th, 2007. The story for that trip is far too extensive to get into right now but let's just say that the experience served to galvanize our hatred further.
We gathered together in January of 2008 for the AFC Championship game and watched yet again as the Patriots put an end to our season. Hatred galvanized further as we were forced to endure an influx of Massholes in one of our own local Gaslamp bars. This same bar even had the nerve to claim it was a Charger bar yet flew a Patriot flag from the wall. I tried to buy it down but to no avail. In just over a calendar year year we had suffered our third loss to the New England Patriots.
About 6 months after that playoff loss the Avengers, undeterred, began preparations for the 2008 regular season showdown with the Patriots scheduled for October 12th. It was in July of 2008 that I abandoned the email format amongst friends and began a blog. Inexperienced, I looked to create a blog URL that would seek to bludgeon the Patriots and their fans in a public fashion.....but the titles were so long that we settled on something simple: Hate The Patriots. It was a crappy URL address but I didn't really begin the whole thing with the end in mind. Just thought I'd be doing it as a tool to hype the October 12th game against the Patriots...to get that group of 20 odd fans excited about the experience.
As the game passed with a victory I found that I quite enjoyed blogging but was dismayed that the fundamentals of the blog gave far too much attention to the New England Patriots. The Padres and Chargers are my teams and as a loyal fan through thick and thin (man it sure has been thin), it made more sense for the URL to reflect that allegiance.
So, while this is a San Diego based blog, I along with a few others will provide commentary on a good many things so we invite you to stay and check it out.....you could even tell a person or two. But in keeping with the original theme of this blog we will always give special attention to the Chargers and relish the opportunity to give anything Patriot related a very hard time .
What I have come to find though, is that the passage of time can change the meaning and intent of our ideas. While we originally labeled ourselves Jack Murphy's Avengers because of an ill-fated game of football my eyes have been opened to a new perspective. Sports exist in this town for a reason and that reason is Jack Murphy. We would do well to know our history and acknowledge it....but it becomes difficult when corporations enter the picture and begin to minimize those who layed the groundwork for Mission Valley. And what of the new ball park in Downtown San Diego where the Padres play their games? It too has been besieged by the Corporations. The team that Jack Murphy brought to San Diego plays in a park named after a pet supply store. Absolutely no nod to the past but instead naming rights sold to the highest bidder: Petco. The Padres of Petco Park......alliteration be damned!!!
But what is it that is done here at this site? Writing....and some stupid jokes as well as one too many Joe Randa references.....but at the end of the day it is writing. So in an attempt to touch on our teams here in San Diego we also look to acknowledge the past by recognizing a sports writer who passed away a few years before we had even set foot in San Diego. Our history must be held sacred....preserved....shared. Out of fear that this is not happening we stand before you to say that it is we.....who are Avenging Jack Murphy.
Editor's Note:
You're crazy if you just read all of that but we appreciate your commitment. We would have opted for the Cliff Notes version . We'll keep the posts much shorter in the future ;-|
**Personally I think Merriman's dance is hilarious. I don't like dances nor do I like things that are planned and have choreography so if I was a fan of the opposition I'd probably hate Merriman. People (Patriot Fans) will say that SM is mocking players every time he does his "Lights Out" dance over a player he has crushed....ehhh, I kind of agree/disagree....none the less I can see the view of others but that's not really the point.
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