@@muhammadfarhan581 right? ridiculous. Just for his offensive schematics alone, he should be in. What he gave to the game we are clearly benefiting from today. The schemes you see today were invented by guys like Sid Gillman and Don Coryell. That's not an opinion
@@stuartmartin2615 At LEAST 10!! It’s a crime Coryell isn’t in the Hall of Fame yet. You look at who coached under him, Madden, Walsh, and Gibbs, 3 Hall of Famers with 7 combined Super Bowl wins and over 350 wins. They’ve all said they wouldn’t be where they are without Don Coryell. His schemes and ideas about creating offense can still be found in the NFL to this day. What the Rams Greatest Show on Turf did in 99, what the 2007 Patriots did, even what Mahomes and Kansas City did a couple years ago in 2018, all that can be traced back to Don Coryell. Get it right, Canton! And I’m not even a Chargers fan.
These bad losses in the playoffs while having fantastic rosters have haunted me my whole life. And now finally watching some chargers football from before I was born shows me it’s truly just a charger thing😞
Longtime Raiders fan here. What an offense those guys had and for my money I never saw any receiver make more spectacular catches than John Jefferson to this day.
Also Ling time Raiders fan. The Chargers of this Era were a threat. I am just glad the Raiders seemed to have their # when it came to play offs. Even though I hate the Chargers I respect these Chargers. I wonder what would have happened if they played the 49ers in the super bowl instead of the bengals
Man I didn't know Madden was one of Coryells disciples...that man made put out great coaches out that went on to win Superbowls. With out the I formation and west coast offense what would football look like. This man was the Steve Jobs of football
@@MF_DOOMer The Greatest Show On Turf was a clone of Air Coryell. Several of the coaches on Dick Vermiel's staff (and Vermiel himself) were Don Coryell's padawan learners: Jim Hanifan, Ernie Zampese, Mike Martz, Mike White, Brian Scottenheimer, Jack Ramsdell.
I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a lot of Chargers games from that era in my collection. Those guys were amazing. If there were no Air Coryell Chargers there would be no Greatest Show on Turf. Dick Vermeil has been on record as saying they basically used the Coryell playbook when they won the SB.
Andrew Sheehy Point taken, Coryell exploited it more than other coaches until Walsh and Gibbs also exploited the rules to their advantage. The Steelers also opened up their playbook as well but not nearly to the great extent that Coryell did.
Coryell himself was a deciple of Sid Gilman whose other proteges were Al Davis and Bill Walsh, among others. As his final coaching job, Gilman was Dick Vermeil's OC in Philadelphia. Vermeil comes into play later. Coryell himself had more proteges like Joe Gibbs, Ernie Zampese, and Al Saunders. Zampese was the Chargers OC after Gibbs went to the Redskins. When Zampese became OC of the Rams in the late 80s Norv Turner and Mike Martz were assistants, which is where they would pick up the offfense. Turner's version was a little more simplistic and less aggressive, but if you look at playbooks from both Coryell and Turner, the verbage and passing trees were pretty much the same. When Vermeil came out of retirement to coach the Rams he wanted to install a full Coryell system, but didn't have the personnel. By '99, however, they did. And they had Mike Martz. Look up NFL coaching trees sometime. It's pretty fascinating how most NFL coaches can be traced back to just a handful of men. It's also a crime neither Coryell or Zampese are in the hall of fame. Both men are so instrumental on how NFL offenses are today.
By the grace of God I too am a SD native. Also as a lifelong fan the joke is "when they lay me to rest I request 6 chargers as my pallbearers so they can let me down, one, last, time" happy new year!
The 79 Chargers would've hosted the Steelers in 70 degree weather at home if they could beat the Earl Campbell and Dan Pastorini-less Oilers. Instead, Vernon Perry has the greatest defensive game in NFL playoff history and they get beat 17-14. I argue with Steelers fans all the time, but I have NO DOUBT that San Diego would've beaten Pittsburgh at home in the AFC Championship game. I absolutely think they would've whupped LA in the Super Bowl. Just an incredible missed opportunity in that franchise's history.
@Manu Ginobilis Bald Spot;I hear you,because I BECAME a Chargers fan for LIFE in 1979 when my older brother,the biggest"Steel Curtain"fan ever continually boasted on the Steelers,to the point that one day I declared:"Man,I'm so sick of you and them Steelers,that the FIRST team I see that beats them,will be"MY team"for LIFE!! 2 weeks later we "played sick",stayed home from church,watched the Oilers/Bills game,until we became convinced that the Oilers were going to win,with a 24-13 lead late in the 3rd quarter,switched to the other game where I saw a team I'd never seen before with lightning-bolts and yellow pants ABUSING the Steelers 28-0 in the 4th,en-route to a 35-7 rout at Jack Murphy Stadium!!! From THAT moment I was hooked on this team,as my brothers face turned a sickly yellow in disbelief!!
I think the 1979 Chargers was the most potent of all Chargers teams ever. Slightly more powerful than the 80-82 Chargers. It was a shame they lost to the Oilers
@@CallAnExorcist_1 It was that defense in '79 that separated them from the other charger teams. The defense faded badly in the 3 years that followed. Trading Fred Dean was the dumbest move ever and played a key role in the 49ers 2 SB's in '81 and '84.
Even though the Chargers were 21-27 from 1983-1985, they still had the the #1, #4 and #1 total offense and #1, #2 and #1 passing offenses. Their 1985 season was one of my favorites - the #1 offense and #28 defense, scored 467 points and allowed 435, won games by scores like 44-41, 40-34 and 54-44 (!) and lost games by scores like 35-49, 35-37 and 34-38
I wish they'd leave la. I wish they'd leave California for somewhere small west coast, like Alaska or Oregon. These would be revolutionary relocations and would be beloved franchises.
@@ryanchungus8972 Agreed. Portland is certainly large enough in terms of population, Anchorage might be on the small side. Nebraska could be another option. But still crazy that they left San Diego, a city far richer than any of these alternatives, and many times their size. I predict the Chargers will return to SD at some point.
Air Coryell was awesome saw it all but the road was hard .. Steelers, Oakland, Miami (young Dan m.) Denver (young John e.) Plus hungry in Cincinnati.... rough road & that's just to get Super bowl
@@w41duvernay Not necessarily true. Yes, the trade is true and it sucked, but 1979 Chargers where the #2 scoring Def and "Big Hands" Johnson and Louis Keltcher where sack leaders for some time. Other teams came into San Diego KNOWING they had to score NOW (every time they touched the ball) or get embarrassed. The Chargers where constantly facing the other team's 2 minute offense from the 1st snap. No game of field position, it was facing the other team's very best effort on offense right from the whistle. The Defense wasn't spectacular, but not nearly as bad as advertised so much as the other team's offense being in super high gear before the game started as they were in fear of being embarrassed and shown up by the Air Coryell offence. - I heard this about 3x from opposing coaches and QBs. If the Charger's D was in any other team or city, they would have been respectable. Not easy to go up against every team's best effort on every play, facing a team's do-or-die offense from the 1st second of the game.
The 81 draft gave SD a low first round choice...on the board James Brooks. Or Mike Singletary! One preface the perfect Cornell player was Joe Washington who the chargers traded away to get Lyell Mitchell in 79 . Think about that.
This is by far the greatest Air Coryell tribute out there. Thank you. Perfectly done adding the real live calls with the great announcers of that era. I was at every home game that year as a 9 year old. that Houston loss was my first playoff game as i had been coming since 1975 and would be going up to 2011. The Buffalo game the following year was almost another blown one. We lucked out. Thanks again, you absolutely nailed it
@@kendallevans4079 Thank you Kendall but i've seen it ten times or more. I do love the fact that those teams got some recognition through the missing rigs series. I need to hear the announcers live calls, some music, the whole bit. Give me some Tom Kelley Chargers radio calls, some network tv calls, all of it. This is light years better than the Missing Rings doc for me.
@@kch7051 Fail! This is from the horses mouth (Fouts, Bauer, Winslow) it doesn't get any better than that! What the F does an announcer know? They are all "homers" anyways. BTW I was born in 1957 so I've been around some great teams like the 80's Raiders who made a living spanking your Bolts yearly!..I lived in SD during the 80's and had to listen to all my co-workers drivel. They had a exciting offense and almost zero defense!
The greatest team to never reach the Super Bowl. A total lack of team speed on defense kept them out of Super Sunday. This team will never be forgotten. Thank you Don Coryell.
NIKO SAMUELS not at all. Powder blue and yellow all day every day. P.S. you have a right to your opinion, but than so do I. And since they're both just opinions, why don't we respect them and just leave it at you have a different preference than me. I mean there's really no reason you should feel a need to devalue my opinion (saying that they're overrated) in order to confirm your opinion to yourself.
I love these old highlights. These are when I was a kid just worshipping football. We would watch the early game, then go and play football till dark with the neighborhood. Once in a while I got to see the Chargers, we lived in Michigan so it was rare. I've been a Lion's fan for that long too. Chargers and Lions, I must like suffering.
I agree, that was the ball game in a nutshell. After that lucky touchdown. For the rest of the game we was one touchdown behind all game. It was sad!!! I was at that game.
A childhood memory that has stayed with me was seeing two games on tv about 1986. I think one was Chargers/Dolphins. The other Chargers/Raiders. Both were 40 point+ games from both teams. Fouts must have been about 40 then. So was Jim Plunkett. But it was exciting. Chargers then were perennial 8-8 teams with no defence. But Fouts, like Marino, played with a lot of intensity. That's the memory. Real never say die stuff...! But a few bad plays and the ship can be sunk.
Great memories to my mind a real pleasure to remember my beginnings about this great sport since in Mexico I did not have so much diffusion about it, since then my favorite sport really suffered every one of the games in which they were eliminated between my 11 and 14 years but also beautiful moments remembering that great offensive there was born my love to the best sports the NFL
EXCELLENT review! As a life-long Chargers fan, thanks for this! My fave Charger game all-time is the beating they gave the Steelers 35-7, so much for the Steel Curtain, LOL! Haven't seen that game footage in decades! Too bad owner Klein was too cheap to keep Mean Fred Dean, without Dean, there was no defense. You can't win without defense. Winslow is my fave player all-time, he always delivered! Not a Chandler fan, he was good but he was no JJ. Fouts > Rivers since Fouts didn't bookend a season with interceptions with under 2 minutes to go by throwing the ball into triple-coverage. Love LT, great runner. Epic in Miami was SO exciting! I still haven't watched the Freezer Bowl in it's entirety. All of Air Coryell offensive players (including Benirschke) deserve to be in the HoF! Thumbs Up for the vid, it brought back great memories!
One of the greatest days/moments was that 35-7 game. The colors, the way the fall light hit the stadium - everything was awesome. Clarence Williams dropped a 4th gtr td pass that would have made the score 42-7
Those Charger teams were a lot of fun to watch! Seeing Don Coreal reminds me of a funny story about him I read years ago in Conrad Dobler’s book. When he was coach of the St. Louis Cardinals, Dobler said Don had his team regularly practice “secret plays” that were never called during games. Once late in a game they were behind, Dobler said he approached Don before they got the ball back and said this would be the perfect time to call one of the “secret plays”. He said the coach replied “yes Connie, it would be the perfect time. We’ve got them set up for it, don’t we? The trouble is, if we call it, it won’t be a secret anymore, will it?” 😂 Later in San Diego in those great years, he must have broken out a bunch of those “secret plays!” RIP Don Coreal
I’m so sorry for not remembering the correct spelling of the great coach Don Coryell’s name. I knew it didn’t look right when I wrote it. My only excuse is I haven’t seen it written down in quite a while.
Fouts, Winslow Joiner in the HOF...It was all due to Coryells Offensive genius which also revolutionized NFL Passing offenses to this very day..To continue to snub him to be elected to the HOF is insane ..his mark on the game is on display to this day on every sunday watching passing offenses set records! For God sakes, give this man his just due!
These Chargers teams with Coryell at the helm paved the way for how football is played even to this day. Pioneers of the game and Coryell should be in the Hall for this fact.
there's been many QB's with great receivers but to this day i can't think of a team that was as graceful & awesome as the 80s Chargers... it was a thing of NFL beauty to watch them on Sunday & Monday nights with Cosell play calling.. (Fouts & receivers leading the NFL those years, makes you wonder if a spy was listening to their plays.... just had to throw it out there)
The '78-'84 Browns (Sipe era) were almost like a junior version of the Air Coryell Chargers. The '80 Browns vs. the '80 Chargers would have been an interesting AFC title game. The Chargers actually weren't bad after '82 but the magic really ended in '87 (Fouts' last year).
Bradshaw usually had 2-3 real stink fests per season but was unbeatable aside from those. The stink fest usually showed up in bad weather or when he was surrounded by 2nd teamers due to injuries like that SD loss. He would try and do it all and totally implode.
Wes Chandler was truly special. Not sure how he pulled off the jersey number switch during the season - but I guess that doesn’t surprise me either. However - it’s not about talent, it’s about professionalism (which means a heck of a lot more than how you behave) - and these guys didn’t have it! Fun to watch if you didn’t have high expectations for them (a lot like the Oilers and Lions a decade later) because these teams were built for style, not championships.
What a team!!!This was a little before my time, but I heard a lot about this team. Imagine this team today with that wide open offense. This is the way the game is played today with these rules now where everything is a penalty. The game is not as Physical, it is more offensive friendly. They would've probably feasted today. Winslow , Joyner, and Jefferson all went over 1000 yards on one team. That is unheard of even today. Lack of defense probably derailed them.
I loved watching the charges as a kid the offense was so explosive but man defense wins championships the Chargers always had a average or below-average defense
The Chargers of the late 70s and early 80s, became the blueprint of modern-day passing offense mainly because of Don Coryell's offensive minded schemes and concepts. Glad he's finally in the hall of fame.
God bless you eagles fan. I was at the 1980 chargers home game vs Eagles. 22-21 for SD. We should have been their in NO to play you. Enjoy your team. Alas the guy who owned it all left us in the dark.
That '82 team had the best I'd ever seen when they had Brooks AND Chuck Muncie in the backfield. James Brooks was pound for pound the toughest running back in the league. Warren Moon, with Electric Glide and them guys were a distant second, whiIe The "Greatest Show On Turf" was a distant third.
I tell my son about Fouts all the time he was the MFIC. Although I am a Buffalo Bills fan by far the most exciting team to watch when I was a kid was the San Diego chargers
In the classic "Epic In Miami" game,when the game turned 24-0 I was about to turn the tv off and go outside to play,when at that very moment the hook & ladder play caught my attention,and the rest is history.
Side note: After the 1983 season they traded James Brooks to the Bengals for Pete Johnson. One of the worst trades ever. Brooks went on to have a great career and Johnson didn't even play a full season before retiring.
My eyes showed me week after week, as a kid, that defense wins championships. I grew up a Bears fan who was at the '81 game vs the Chargers, where the "46 defense" was born.
This team will never garner any respect from coaches/players when the man who runs football operations is the owners son, John Spanos cannot be fired, has never played a down, walked into a job he didn’t earn. And they will never garner any respect from fans/league after dean burned the only thing he had, fans in San Diego. That new stadium will look great with 15,000 charger fans. The league will have a black eye they cannot heal
Fell intensely in love with those chargers. Fouts didn't have the greatest arm, nor was he the most athletic, but that made it even more fun and surprising to see one brave, accurate SOB slinger go at it again and again. Simply electrifying. Super intense highs and lows. Plus, ALWAYS on the razor's edge because most of those years, they had a mediocre running game and a godawful defense. So it was like a high noon duel whenever he stepped back: everyone knew they were gonna throw, and still came up on top most of the time. Like growing strength out of fragility. Life inspiring for me to this day.
They had the misfortune of playing against some of the best teams ever assembled. They were sandwhiched between two incredible dynasties in the steelers and 49ers.
Who else played in such temperature extremes in back to back weekends? The "Epic in Miami" January 2nd 1982, 88 degrees, brutal humidity, overtime, players dropping from heat exhaustion. The "Freezer Bowl" January 10th 1982, 9 degrees below zero, 30MPH winds, -38 wind chill is still the worst for any NFL game ever.
Bill walsh was their offensive coordinator a few years earlier, and taught fouts some footwork that he desperately needed. The receivers also didn't wear tackified gloves. They're probably the best ever.
Joe Gibbs ran his version in Washington but had more shifting motion and emphasize on the ground game with byner and ervins.. but the downfield passing was nasty with monk and clark..mark rypien was a perfect fit
Always one step away from glory? The Charger version, maybe. Joe Gibbs took Washington to four Super Bowls and won three of them in ten seasons using his own (generally more run-heavy) version of Air Coryell. Air Coryell coach Dick Vermeil took the 1980 Eagles and 1999 Rams to the Super Bowl, winning with the Rams. His successor, Mike Martz, took the Rams to the Super Bowl again just two years later. Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Ben Roethlisberger each spent large parts of their careers in Coryell-based systems tailored to their individual strengths. No, the Chargers weren’t able to get to the Super Bowl in the Coryell era, but plenty of teams and coaches building on Coryell’s accomplishments have made Super Bowl appearances, both wins and losses. That, if anything, proves his brilliance - he developed a heck of a system. It just needed more balance and refinement than he was able to give it.
RIP San Diego Chargers
Don Coryell should be in the hall of fame
Edit 4 Years Later: HE IS NOW IN THE HALL OF FAME!
Wait. He's not?
@@muhammadfarhan581 right? ridiculous. Just for his offensive schematics alone, he should be in. What he gave to the game we are clearly benefiting from today. The schemes you see today were invented by guys like Sid Gillman and Don Coryell. That's not an opinion
Damn that's crazy, I had just assumed he was inducted some time ago.
How many super bowls has the coryell offense won? At least 10. He and Sid Gilman both moved offensive football forwards.
@@stuartmartin2615 At LEAST 10!! It’s a crime Coryell isn’t in the Hall of Fame yet. You look at who coached under him, Madden, Walsh, and Gibbs, 3 Hall of Famers with 7 combined Super Bowl wins and over 350 wins. They’ve all said they wouldn’t be where they are without Don Coryell. His schemes and ideas about creating offense can still be found in the NFL to this day. What the Rams Greatest Show on Turf did in 99, what the 2007 Patriots did, even what Mahomes and Kansas City did a couple years ago in 2018, all that can be traced back to Don Coryell. Get it right, Canton! And I’m not even a Chargers fan.
These bad losses in the playoffs while having fantastic rosters have haunted me my whole life. And now finally watching some chargers football from before I was born shows me it’s truly just a charger thing😞
Longtime Raiders fan here. What an offense those guys had and for my money I never saw any receiver make more spectacular catches than John Jefferson to this day.
Also Ling time Raiders fan. The Chargers of this Era were a threat. I am just glad the Raiders seemed to have their # when it came to play offs. Even though I hate the Chargers I respect these Chargers. I wonder what would have happened if they played the 49ers in the super bowl instead of the bengals
@@kyledamron same here.... wished the chargers would have went
Man I didn't know Madden was one of Coryells disciples...that man made put out great coaches out that went on to win Superbowls. With out the I formation and west coast offense what would football look like. This man was the Steve Jobs of football
@@tasiwilsonmusicdon’t forget joe Gibbs was on the Chargers staff among many other coaches
Lynn Swann
If the Chargers of the late 70's/early 80s played under modern day Nfl rules they would have averaged 50 pts a game!
Easily
Then they would be the greatest show on Turf
@@MF_DOOMer The Greatest Show On Turf was a clone of Air Coryell. Several of the coaches on Dick Vermiel's staff (and Vermiel himself) were Don Coryell's padawan learners: Jim Hanifan, Ernie Zampese, Mike Martz, Mike White, Brian Scottenheimer, Jack Ramsdell.
@@Jelperman Exactly
Makes me cry watching this...Beautiful video about the chargers
Love the passion!
I totally agree..those doors being opened in those cold temperatures only when air Coryell had the ball was a definite plus for the Bengals.
I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a lot of Chargers games from that era in my collection. Those guys were amazing. If there were no Air Coryell Chargers there would be no Greatest Show on Turf. Dick Vermeil has been on record as saying they basically used the Coryell playbook when they won the SB.
SPTO The 5 Yard "Chuck" Rule adopted in 1978 made Air Coryell possible.
Andrew Sheehy Point taken, Coryell exploited it more than other coaches until Walsh and Gibbs also exploited the rules to their advantage. The Steelers also opened up their playbook as well but not nearly to the great extent that Coryell did.
Coryell himself was a deciple of Sid Gilman whose other proteges were Al Davis and Bill Walsh, among others. As his final coaching job, Gilman was Dick Vermeil's OC in Philadelphia. Vermeil comes into play later.
Coryell himself had more proteges like Joe Gibbs, Ernie Zampese, and Al Saunders. Zampese was the Chargers OC after Gibbs went to the Redskins. When Zampese became OC of the Rams in the late 80s Norv Turner and Mike Martz were assistants, which is where they would pick up the offfense. Turner's version was a little more simplistic and less aggressive, but if you look at playbooks from both Coryell and Turner, the verbage and passing trees were pretty much the same.
When Vermeil came out of retirement to coach the Rams he wanted to install a full Coryell system, but didn't have the personnel. By '99, however, they did. And they had Mike Martz.
Look up NFL coaching trees sometime. It's pretty fascinating how most NFL coaches can be traced back to just a handful of men. It's also a crime neither Coryell or Zampese are in the hall of fame. Both men are so instrumental on how NFL offenses are today.
That's true, interestingly enough Gilman was an offensive coordinator for the Bears during Jack Pardee's last year there. in '77.
I did also. I need to go to my storage to find the games I have on VHS 😀
Grew up as a kid in San Diego, dad had season tickets. I absolutely love this team, and they are forever a part of my life and childhood.
Vernon Perry played possibly the best game ever in the ‘79 AFC Divisional round game , my goodness ...
He followed it up with a 75 yard pick 6 off Bradshaw on the Steelers opening possession in the AFC Championship Game.
Intercepted 4 ppasses and block a FG and returned it 57 yards. I’d say that performance is an all-timer
Yes, he did the damn thing
Air Coryell Offense was beautiful 😍
Love Fouts as a broadcaster too. May not have won a Super Bowl but the guy is a total winner in my book.
I was a boy in San Diego back in those days and I can honestly say that NEVER has there been a more exhilarating AND frustrating team to be a fan of!
By the grace of God I too am a SD native. Also as a lifelong fan the joke is "when they lay me to rest I request 6 chargers as my pallbearers so they can let me down, one, last, time" happy new year!
Any other Charger fans here?
@@JulianWavy yessir. 1975- current
Aye aye, sir.
Since '06
San Diego Chargers... not that LA Chokers of Dean Spanos
Not a charger fan. However that was a hell of an offence. Fours muncie John Jefferson Wes chandler
The 79 Chargers would've hosted the Steelers in 70 degree weather at home if they could beat the Earl Campbell and Dan Pastorini-less Oilers. Instead, Vernon Perry has the greatest defensive game in NFL playoff history and they get beat 17-14. I argue with Steelers fans all the time, but I have NO DOUBT that San Diego would've beaten Pittsburgh at home in the AFC Championship game. I absolutely think they would've whupped LA in the Super Bowl. Just an incredible missed opportunity in that franchise's history.
If
@Manu Ginobilis Bald Spot;I hear you,because I BECAME a Chargers fan for LIFE in 1979 when my older brother,the biggest"Steel Curtain"fan ever continually boasted on the Steelers,to the point that one day I declared:"Man,I'm so sick of you and them Steelers,that the FIRST team I see that beats them,will be"MY team"for LIFE!! 2 weeks later we "played sick",stayed home from church,watched the Oilers/Bills game,until we became convinced that the Oilers were going to win,with a 24-13 lead late in the 3rd quarter,switched to the other game where I saw a team I'd never seen before with lightning-bolts and yellow pants ABUSING the Steelers 28-0 in the 4th,en-route to a 35-7 rout at Jack Murphy Stadium!!! From THAT moment I was hooked on this team,as my brothers face turned a sickly yellow in disbelief!!
I think the 1979 Chargers was the most potent of all Chargers teams ever. Slightly more powerful than the 80-82 Chargers.
It was a shame they lost to the Oilers
Tells you how fluid football seasons can really be.
@@CallAnExorcist_1 It was that defense in '79 that separated them from the other charger teams. The defense faded badly in the 3 years that followed. Trading Fred Dean was the dumbest move ever and played a key role in the 49ers 2 SB's in '81 and '84.
Even though the Chargers were 21-27 from 1983-1985, they still had the the #1, #4 and #1 total offense and #1, #2 and #1 passing offenses. Their 1985 season was one of my favorites - the #1 offense and #28 defense, scored 467 points and allowed 435, won games by scores like 44-41, 40-34 and 54-44 (!) and lost games by scores like 35-49, 35-37 and 34-38
Good old Chargers... always underachieving in the postseason.
Great, great video! This is the time period when I fell in love with the NFL as a kid. More insight to an era I thought I knew pretty well. Nice job!
" The Missing Rings...SD Chargers"....
So glad Coach Coryell is finally a HOFer. He changed football forever. I still can't believe that Houston playoff loss in 1979 at home.
Great Great video... Well played 😎 👌
The 1981 game vs Miami was 1 of the best I've ever seen.
Using this video for my English Final on How the Air Coryell Offense paved the way for the modern NFL Offense
A great look back at one of the great SAN DIEGO charger teams we ever saw. Bring my team back home.
I wish the chargers were back in San Diego
I'm not even a chargers fan and I do 2. I used to visit San Diego a lot as a kid. Love San Diego
I wish they'd leave la. I wish they'd leave California for somewhere small west coast, like Alaska or Oregon. These would be revolutionary relocations and would be beloved franchises.
@@ryanchungus8972 Agreed. Portland is certainly large enough in terms of population, Anchorage might be on the small side. Nebraska could be another option. But still crazy that they left San Diego, a city far richer than any of these alternatives, and many times their size. I predict the Chargers will return to SD at some point.
@@hd-xc2lz nfl is dead now lmao. They care more about BLM than they do football
@@ryanchungus8972 So why do you care about relocation options?
Air Coryell was awesome saw it all but the road was hard .. Steelers, Oakland, Miami (young Dan m.) Denver (young John e.) Plus hungry in Cincinnati.... rough road & that's just to get Super bowl
The most exciting team in NFL history. If they didn’t have a cheap owner, they could have built a dynasty.🏈
(Sigh) It hurts to know they never won a Super Bowl
Q Jefferson in the 2000s too. Rivers,Gates,LT all in their prime and no Super Bowls.
only didn't have a SB because their Defense was soo horrible. Idiot owner traded away their best defensive player to San Francisco.
@@w41duvernay Not necessarily true. Yes, the trade is true and it sucked, but 1979 Chargers where the #2 scoring Def and "Big Hands" Johnson and Louis Keltcher where sack leaders for some time. Other teams came into San Diego KNOWING they had to score NOW (every time they touched the ball) or get embarrassed. The Chargers where constantly facing the other team's 2 minute offense from the 1st snap. No game of field position, it was facing the other team's very best effort on offense right from the whistle. The Defense wasn't spectacular, but not nearly as bad as advertised so much as the other team's offense being in super high gear before the game started as they were in fear of being embarrassed and shown up by the Air Coryell offence. - I heard this about 3x from opposing coaches and QBs. If the Charger's D was in any other team or city, they would have been respectable. Not easy to go up against every team's best effort on every play, facing a team's do-or-die offense from the 1st second of the game.
The 81 draft gave SD a low first round choice...on the board James Brooks. Or Mike Singletary! One preface the perfect Cornell player was Joe Washington who the chargers traded away to get Lyell Mitchell in 79 . Think about that.
I miss my friend Chuck Muncie, we worked in Bullhead city and he also lived not too far from me... just down the road....R.I.P.
This is by far the greatest Air Coryell tribute out there. Thank you. Perfectly done adding the real live calls with the great announcers of that era. I was at every home game that year as a 9 year old. that Houston loss was my first playoff game as i had been coming since 1975 and would be going up to 2011. The Buffalo game the following year was almost another blown one. We lucked out. Thanks again, you absolutely nailed it
"The missing rings...SD Chargers" is MUCH better with Fouts, Winslow, Bauer doing the narration
@@kendallevans4079 Thank you Kendall but i've seen it ten times or more. I do love the fact that those teams got some recognition through the missing rigs series. I need to hear the announcers live calls, some music, the whole bit. Give me some Tom Kelley Chargers radio calls, some network tv calls, all of it. This is light years better than the Missing Rings doc for me.
@@kch7051 Fail! This is from the horses mouth (Fouts, Bauer, Winslow) it doesn't get any better than that! What the F does an announcer know? They are all "homers" anyways. BTW I was born in 1957 so I've been around some great teams like the 80's Raiders who made a living spanking your Bolts yearly!..I lived in SD during the 80's and had to listen to all my co-workers drivel. They had a exciting offense and almost zero defense!
The greatest team to never reach the Super Bowl. A total lack of team speed on defense kept them out of Super Sunday. This team will never be forgotten. Thank you Don Coryell.
SD FOREVER BABY!⚡️⚡️⚡️
This is when I started watching football as a kid. Loved this team, and broke my heart every playoff season. Winslow, Jeffeson, Joiner, Fouts.
Just a fan from the NFL 70's and that San Diego club was awesome to watch!..it was Air Coryell...so much fun...peace.
Chargers need to go back to these uniforms. Especially the blue over yellow. What they wear now is atrocious.
Thank Nike ..A HACK at uniforms desines.
Joe Griego if anything they should go back to the powder blues. They're considered the best looking jerseys in pro sports for a reason.
NIKO SAMUELS not at all. Powder blue and yellow all day every day.
P.S. you have a right to your opinion, but than so do I. And since they're both just opinions, why don't we respect them and just leave it at you have a different preference than me.
I mean there's really no reason you should feel a need to devalue my opinion (saying that they're overrated) in order to confirm your opinion to yourself.
NIKO SAMUELS you'll have to forgive me for not judging you by it.
Have a blessed day.😊
Casimir III are they really?
Dan Fouts still has nightmares about Vernon Perry
Imagine what Fouts and other great QB's from the 70s and 80s could do in today's game being in their primes again?!
Nothing. NFL defences were clueless on how to stop the pass back then.
I love these old highlights. These are when I was a kid just worshipping football. We would watch the early game, then go and play football till dark with the neighborhood. Once in a while I got to see the Chargers, we lived in Michigan so it was rare. I've been a Lion's fan for that long too. Chargers and Lions, I must like suffering.
Dan Fouts changed the way a QB should play.And his receivers practically invented the highlight reel.Believe me I was there.
Aw stop it was plenty of receivers having highlight reels before them especially the raiders the cowboys the Steelers
Will always have mad love for my team, even with them gone ⚡️ very underrated
Wow 4 ints for Perry. That's even hard to do in Madden
Greatest offense ever
The tipped pass caught by Raymond Chester.That will haunt San Diego forever
The passes Jefferson dropped in the end zone haunt me to this day.
I agree, that was the ball game in a nutshell. After that lucky touchdown. For the rest of the game we was one touchdown behind all game. It was sad!!! I was at that game.
Fouts is my favorite QB of all time
This was team that hooked me on football as an elementary school kid in Michigan.
A childhood memory that has stayed with me was seeing two games on tv about 1986. I think one was Chargers/Dolphins. The other Chargers/Raiders. Both were 40 point+ games from both teams. Fouts must have been about 40 then. So was Jim Plunkett. But it was exciting. Chargers then were perennial 8-8 teams with no defence. But Fouts, like Marino, played with a lot of intensity. That's the memory. Real never say die stuff...! But a few bad plays and the ship can be sunk.
Don Coryell 4 Canton
Great memories to my mind a real pleasure to remember my beginnings about this great sport since in Mexico I did not have so much diffusion about it, since then my favorite sport really suffered every one of the games in which they were eliminated between my 11 and 14 years but also beautiful moments remembering that great offensive there was born my love to the best sports the NFL
We need more of these.
EXCELLENT review! As a life-long Chargers fan, thanks for this! My fave Charger game all-time is the beating they gave the Steelers 35-7, so much for the Steel Curtain, LOL! Haven't seen that game footage in decades! Too bad owner Klein was too cheap to keep Mean Fred Dean, without Dean, there was no defense. You can't win without defense. Winslow is my fave player all-time, he always delivered! Not a Chandler fan, he was good but he was no JJ. Fouts > Rivers since Fouts didn't bookend a season with interceptions with under 2 minutes to go by throwing the ball into triple-coverage. Love LT, great runner. Epic in Miami was SO exciting! I still haven't watched the Freezer Bowl in it's entirety. All of Air Coryell offensive players (including Benirschke) deserve to be in the HoF! Thumbs Up for the vid, it brought back great memories!
One of the greatest days/moments was that 35-7 game. The colors, the way the fall light hit the stadium - everything was awesome. Clarence Williams dropped a 4th gtr td pass that would have made the score 42-7
Best era of NFL football ever 60' 70's and 80's
Those Charger teams were a lot of fun to watch!
Seeing Don Coreal reminds me of a funny story about him I read years ago in Conrad Dobler’s book. When he was coach of the St. Louis Cardinals, Dobler said Don had his team regularly practice “secret plays” that were never called during games. Once late in a game they were behind, Dobler said he approached Don before they got the ball back and said this would be the perfect time to call one of the “secret plays”. He said the coach replied “yes Connie, it would be the perfect time. We’ve got them set up for it, don’t we? The trouble is, if we call it, it won’t be a secret anymore, will it?” 😂 Later in San Diego in those great years, he must have broken out a bunch of those “secret plays!” RIP Don Coreal
Gary Evans lol@ it won’t be a secret anymore. Don was the best. 👏👏👏👏👏👏
I’m so sorry for not remembering the correct spelling of the great coach Don Coryell’s name. I knew it didn’t look right when I wrote it. My only excuse is I haven’t seen it written down in quite a while.
Gary Evans This proves to me that Elliott used to love watching the Chargers during their time when Coryell was the coach.
Fouts, Winslow Joiner in the HOF...It was all due to Coryells Offensive genius which also revolutionized NFL Passing offenses to this very day..To continue to snub him to be elected to the HOF is insane ..his mark on the game is on display to this day on every sunday watching passing offenses set records! For God sakes, give this man his just due!
Funny thing is Jefferson and Chandler were the true Show Stoppers that got everyone excited. Both are hall of famers in my mind and heart 💓
They were a very impressive scoring machine... and I got a chance to watch them!!!!
DAN FOUTS is my favorite QB!! And that's on only watching highlights alone!!🏈👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
San Diego!
The editing and production value of this video is outstanding!
These Chargers teams with Coryell at the helm paved the way for how football is played even to this day. Pioneers of the game and Coryell should be in the Hall for this fact.
I love these old footage videos you show. I'm not even a Chargers fan, but this was cool.
They would always break your heart, but they sure put on a tremendous show.
Air Coryell and Fouts were so much fun to watch.
Interesting fact, 1980 MVP, Brian Sipe played for Coryell at San Diego state
Great video. Loved seeing the old telecast footage.
Man that team was fun to watch thanks
It's amazing that in the 81 playoffs , they went from extreme heat in Miami to extreme cold in Cincinnati in 1 week.
there's been many QB's with great receivers but to this day i can't think of a team that was as graceful & awesome as the 80s Chargers... it was a thing of NFL beauty to watch them on Sunday & Monday nights with Cosell play calling.. (Fouts & receivers leading the NFL those years, makes you wonder if a spy was listening to their plays.... just had to throw it out there)
First time Air Coryell won a Super it was with the 1992 Dallas Cowboys, then the 1999 Rams……the SD Chargers legacy were these 2 teams.
San Diego Super Chargers! This was the era that made me a life long fan!
The '78-'84 Browns (Sipe era) were almost like a junior version of the Air Coryell Chargers. The '80 Browns vs. the '80 Chargers would have been an interesting AFC title game. The Chargers actually weren't bad after '82 but the magic really ended in '87 (Fouts' last year).
When hall of famers throw interceptions im like “what are you doing” then i look at T Bradshaw records and he is considered top 10
Back then QBs were told that if your receiver was covered, throw it to him anyway and let him fight for the ball.
Bradshaw usually had 2-3 real stink fests per season but was unbeatable aside from those. The stink fest usually showed up in bad weather or when he was surrounded by 2nd teamers due to injuries like that SD loss. He would try and do it all and totally implode.
Quarterbacks back then through a lot of interceptions
Those guys were larger then life...
Wes Chandler was truly special. Not sure how he pulled off the jersey number switch during the season - but I guess that doesn’t surprise me either.
However - it’s not about talent, it’s about professionalism (which means a heck of a lot more than how you behave) - and these guys didn’t have it!
Fun to watch if you didn’t have high expectations for them (a lot like the Oilers and Lions a decade later) because these teams were built for style, not championships.
What a team!!!This was a little before my time, but I heard a lot about this team. Imagine this team today with that wide open offense. This is the way the game is played today with these rules now where everything is a penalty. The game is not as Physical, it is more offensive friendly. They would've probably feasted today. Winslow , Joyner, and Jefferson all went over 1000 yards on one team. That is unheard of even today. Lack of defense probably derailed them.
The original
GREATEST SHOW ON TURF
When Football was Football Great Era
:( being a Chargers fan hurts
I loved watching the charges as a kid the offense was so explosive but man defense wins championships the Chargers always had a average or below-average defense
Not in 79 they didn't...
I think people forget how great this team was,and Especially Foutes.
The Chargers of the late 70s and early 80s, became the blueprint of modern-day passing offense mainly because of Don Coryell's offensive minded schemes and concepts. Glad he's finally in the hall of fame.
The Origin of the Greatest Show on Turf
They had their own name
Kellen Winslow was the prototype of the modern TE! An unbelievable offense that will never be duplicated again!
Not one mention of Fred Dean? Trading him hurt the Chargers badly.
Is giants vs saints 2015 flashback next?
TheSportsGamer probably since it was a shootout
Trust the Process!
It is!!
They may have never won a Super Bowl, but they were the most exciting to watch (ever IMO).
This is one of those teams I wish I was alive to see, the Missing Rings documentary on the 1981 team is great too
God bless you eagles fan. I was at the 1980 chargers home game vs Eagles. 22-21 for SD. We should have been their in NO to play you. Enjoy your team. Alas the guy who owned it all left us in the dark.
yurolson never thought I’d hear those words before 2017, that definitely would’ve been a fun super bowl
That '82 team had the best I'd ever seen when they had Brooks AND Chuck Muncie in the backfield. James Brooks was pound for pound the toughest running back in the league.
Warren Moon, with Electric Glide and them guys were a distant second, whiIe The "Greatest Show On Turf" was a distant third.
Fours was such a great passer
Nice editing and great video
I tell my son about Fouts all the time he was the MFIC. Although I am a Buffalo Bills fan by far the most exciting team to watch when I was a kid was the San Diego chargers
In the classic "Epic In Miami" game,when the game turned 24-0 I was about to turn the tv off and go outside to play,when at that very moment the hook & ladder play caught my attention,and the rest is history.
Side note:
After the 1983 season they traded James Brooks to the Bengals for Pete Johnson. One of the worst trades ever. Brooks went on to have a great career and Johnson didn't even play a full season before retiring.
My eyes showed me week after week, as a kid, that defense wins championships.
I grew up a Bears fan who was at the '81 game vs the Chargers, where the "46 defense" was born.
th-cam.com/video/qdavOAYDJlw/w-d-xo.html
This team will never garner any respect from coaches/players when the man who runs football operations is the owners son, John Spanos cannot be fired, has never played a down, walked into a job he didn’t earn. And they will never garner any respect from fans/league after dean burned the only thing he had, fans in San Diego. That new stadium will look great with 15,000 charger fans. The league will have a black eye they cannot heal
mi equipo favorito desde entonces hasta ahorita bellos recuerdos.
Fell intensely in love with those chargers. Fouts didn't have the greatest arm, nor was he the most athletic, but that made it even more fun and surprising to see one brave, accurate SOB slinger go at it again and again. Simply electrifying. Super intense highs and lows. Plus, ALWAYS on the razor's edge because most of those years, they had a mediocre running game and a godawful defense. So it was like a high noon duel whenever he stepped back: everyone knew they were gonna throw, and still came up on top most of the time. Like growing strength out of fragility. Life inspiring for me to this day.
You are absolutely right, it was like watching magic.
not greatest arm? dude he blasted that ball like crazy for several yards... better than Brady & Manning
san diego looked like awesome place to live in the late 70s early 80s especially if you were in your 20 30s and 40s
They had the misfortune of playing against some of the best teams ever assembled. They were sandwhiched between two incredible dynasties in the steelers and 49ers.
Who else played in such temperature extremes in back to back weekends?
The "Epic in Miami" January 2nd 1982, 88 degrees, brutal humidity, overtime, players dropping from heat exhaustion.
The "Freezer Bowl" January 10th 1982, 9 degrees below zero, 30MPH winds, -38 wind chill is still the worst for any NFL game ever.
Bill walsh was their offensive coordinator a few years earlier, and taught fouts some footwork that he desperately needed.
The receivers also didn't wear tackified gloves. They're probably the best ever.
Joe Gibbs ran his version in Washington but had more shifting motion and emphasize on the ground game with byner and ervins.. but the downfield passing was nasty with monk and clark..mark rypien was a perfect fit
Air Coryell. The greatest offense ever.
Always one step away from glory? The Charger version, maybe. Joe Gibbs took Washington to four Super Bowls and won three of them in ten seasons using his own (generally more run-heavy) version of Air Coryell.
Air Coryell coach Dick Vermeil took the 1980 Eagles and 1999 Rams to the Super Bowl, winning with the Rams. His successor, Mike Martz, took the Rams to the Super Bowl again just two years later.
Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Ben Roethlisberger each spent large parts of their careers in Coryell-based systems tailored to their individual strengths.
No, the Chargers weren’t able to get to the Super Bowl in the Coryell era, but plenty of teams and coaches building on Coryell’s accomplishments have made Super Bowl appearances, both wins and losses. That, if anything, proves his brilliance - he developed a heck of a system. It just needed more balance and refinement than he was able to give it.