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The former San Diego Chargers kicked off the new year by defeating the 2022 Super Bowl winners, the NFL’s defending champions, the Los Angeles Rams. Chargers 31, Rams 10.
Note that I didn’t say Los Angeles Chargers. That’s because he was one of only 11,000 who attended his Chargers’ first game in San Diego in August 1961. I he was 20 years old.
The Chargers’ quarterback was No. 15 Jack Kemp. Within a few months, he met the then-25-year-old Kemp at a political conference and forged a friendship that would last until his death at age 74, through his career as a congressman, presidential cabinet member, and presidential candidate. president and vice presidential candidate.
It has been my pleasure and honor to contribute, albeit modestly, to all of his campaigns, including those of the President.
Kemp was the San Diego Chargers’ star quarterback until he moved to the Buffalo Bills in 1973. In his first year at Buffalo, the Chargers swept Boston his Patriots in the league championship game 53-10.
But it was at Buffalo that Kemp blossomed into an enduring division champion, a regular playoff quarterback. And it was in Buffalo, Republican territory in western New York, that his political career took off.
When I stepped into the San Diego sports world in 1967 as a publicist, I had the pleasure of working with nearly every Charger in charity fundraising and public service promotion. On one memorable night, the day before a game in San Diego, Tijuana’s Agua Caliente Racetrack hosted former defensive back Claude “Foot” Gibson, who joined Buffalo’s Kemp as an assistant coach, and several of his players. .
Buffalo’s star rookie running back and guest of the day was OJ Simpson. He allowed me to present him to 20,000 people that Saturday when he was crowned the winner of the feature race of the day. Gibson was waiting for his pass two fields on Sunday’s football game call.
These were my San Diego Chargers. They were until the team announced they were moving to Los Angeles. It’s worn out.
I have seen old stadiums demolished and chopped into material for the new Snapdragon Stadium, home of my San Diego State Aztecs. Future Major League Soccer teams and NFL expansion teams may also return home. who knows.
All I know now is that I managed to read the 60-page book while Charges was playing on Sunday.
Raoul Lowery Contreras is a Marine Corps veteran, political consultant, prolific author, and host of the Contreras Report on YouTube and ROKU.
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