January 1, 2017: The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Diego Chargers, 37-27 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. It is the last game for the Chargers, San Diego's 1st major league sports team.
After playing the 1st American Football League season, 1960, in Los Angeles, their owner, Barron Hilton, son of hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, and who had named the team after his credit card company, Carte Blanche, recognized that he was never going to take the market away from the NFL's Rams. So he moved them down the Coast to San Diego, where they reached the AFL Championship Game again in 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1965, winning in 1963.
In 1966, Hilton sold the team to car dealer Gene Klein. He presided over the team's aging and collapse, and its rebuild in the late 1970s, getting to the 1981 AFC Championship Game. He loved owning an NFL team, but he hated dealing with the business of pro football. In 1984, he got an offer of $48 million from real estate developer Alex Spanos. In his memoir, First Down and a Billion, he closed every chapter with the words, "Thank you, Alex."
The Chargers won the AFC Championship in 1994, but lost Super Bowl XXIX. As Spanos' health declined, his son, Dean Spanos, gained control, and he wanted out of Qualcomm Stadium (known as San Diego Stadium from 1967 to 1981 and Jack Murphy Stadium from then until 1997). He kept threatening to move the team back to Los Angeles if he didn't get a new stadium. But the City of San Diego and the County of San Diego both refused to pay for it.
And so, having gotten permission from the other NFL team owners to make the move if he wanted to, the team's last game of the 2016 season seemed doomed to be the last home game for the San Diego Chargers.
They took a 5-10 record into Qualcomm Stadium for their season finale, against the Kansas City Chiefs. They led 10-3 early in the 2nd quarter, and were within 20-17 early in the 3rd. But their defense couldn't hold, and when Philip Rivers threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Henry with 2:08 left, it was followed by an extra point from Josh Lambo, which served as the last scoring play in San Diego Charger history. The game ended, 37-27. to the Chiefs, who thus clinched the AFC Western Division title. Attendance in the 70,561-seat stadium: 54,915.
The opposing quarterbacks: Alex Smith of Kansas City,
and Philip Rivers of San Diego
Just 11 days later, on January 12, 2017, Dean Spanos made the move official. They spent 3 seasons at what's now named Dignity Health Sports Park in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California -- a 27,000-seat soccer-specific stadium, where the Chargers' new fans were usually outdrawn by fans of visiting teams, some of whom had moved to the L.A. area. The Rams, having played in St. Louis from 1995 to 2015, had beaten the Chargers to moving back by 1 year, gaining the upper hand in media coverage and fandom, costing the Chargers dearly. In 2020, both teams moved into SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
San Diego had lost the NBA's Rockets in 1971, the ABA's Conquistadors in 1975, the WHA's Mariners in 1977, the NBA's Clippers in 1984, and now the NFL's Chargers in 2017. They had nearly lost MLB's Padres in 1974, and had local voters not approved a bond issue for Petco Park in 1998, the Padres would have moved. By Spring 2017, the Padres were the only major league sports team left in San Diego.
Some people in San Diego County stuck with the Chargers. Some switched to the Rams, as a major middle finger to Dean Spanos. Some gave up on football altogether.
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January 1, 2017 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played that day:
* The New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins, 19-10 at FedEx Field (now Northwest Stadium) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills, 30-10 at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands.
* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys, 27-13 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
* The Atlanta Falcons beat their arch-rivals, the New Orleans Saints, 38-32 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. This was the last regular-season game there. The Falcons won 2 Playoff games there that season, before losing Super Bowl LI, and moved into Mercedes-Benz Stadium the next season.
* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Carolina Panthers, 17-16 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
* The New England Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins, 35-14 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
* The Tennessee Titans, who used to be the Houston Oilers, beat their successors, the Houston Texans, 24-17 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.
* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 27-24 at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh.
* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Baltimore Ravens, 27-10 at Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) in Cincinnati.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions, 31-24 at Ford Field in Detroit.
* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 24-20 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Chicago Bears, 38-10 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
* The Denver Broncos beat the Oakland Raiders, 24-6 at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.
* The Arizona Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Rams, 44-6 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
* And the Seattle Seahawks beat the San Francisco 49ers, 25-23 at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Santa Clara, California.
There was no Monday Night Football game that final week of the regular season. If it had been scheduled, it would have competed with the college bowl games. The NCAA usually doesn't let games, even bowl games, be played on Sundays, so the major bowls that would have been played on New Year's Day were moved around:
* December 30, Orange Bowl, Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida: Number 11 Florida State 33, Number 6 Michigan 32.
* December 31, Peach Bowl, Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Playoff Semifinal: Number 1 Alabama 24, Number 4 Washington 7.
* December 31, Fiesta Bowl, University of Phoenix Stadium (now State Farm Stadium), Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona, Playoff Semifinal: Number 2 Clemson 31, Number 3 Ohio State 0.
* January 2, Cotton Bowl, AT&T Stadium, Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas: Number 8 Wisconsin 24, Number 15 Western Michigan 16. WMU became only the 2nd team from the Mid-American Conference in a traditional New Year's Day bowl game, following Northern Illinois in the 2013 Orange Bowl.
* January 2, Rose Bowl, Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California: Number 9 Southern California 52, Number 5 Penn State 49.
* January 2, Sugar Bowl, Superdome, New Orleans: Number 7 Oklahoma 35, Number 14 Auburn 19.
* January 9, National Championship, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa: Number 2 Clemson 35, Number 1 Alabama 31.
Baseball was out of season. There were 5 NBA games:
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 114-112 in overtime at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Miami Heat, 107-98 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Orlando Magic, 117-104 at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 95-89 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. CJ McCollum led all scorers on the day with 43 points.
* And the Toronto Raptors beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 123-114 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. Kyle Lowry scored 41.
There were 3 games in the NHL:
* The Washington Capitals beat the Ottawa Senators, 2-1 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.
* In the NHL Centennial Classic, kicking off the League's 100th Anniversary calendar year with an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4, outdoors in front of 40,148 fans at BMO Field in Toronto. The Leafs led, 4-1 with 7:55 left in regulation, but the Wings died it with 2 seconds to go, on a goal by Anthony Mantha. But with 1:20 left in overtime, Auston Matthews scored the winning goal for the Leafs. I have a separate entry for this event.
* And the Anaheim Ducks beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3 in a shootout at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
The NHL Winter Classic, another game that usually gets played on New Year's Day, got moved back to January 2, due to January 1 being a Sunday. In that game, the St. Louis Blues beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-1 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
And in English soccer, Arsenal beat South London team Crystal Palace, 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium in North London.
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