Chargers bring unrivaled disdain in Broncoland

[FCBolt]

This one deserves its own thread.

By Lindsay H. Jones
The Denver Post
Posted: 11/20/2009 01:00:00 AM MST

The first meeting this season between the Broncos and Chargers got testy long before the opening kickoff, as officials had to keep the teams separated during pregame warm-ups at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

As far as a teenage Daniel Graham knew, his hometown Denver Broncos had only one rival.

And that team wore silver and black.

Graham, whose father, Tom, played for the Broncos in the 1970s, said that when he was growing up here, no team was more despised than the Raiders.

"I don't remember hearing anything about the Chargers," said Graham, who graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1997. "It was all about the Raiders."

The new generation of Broncos fans might disagree.

The most reviled team on the schedule is the one in blue and yellow, the San Diego Chargers, owners of three consecutive AFC West titles and a four-game winning streak.

The Broncos and Chargers have matching 6-3 records, and the winner of Sunday's game at Invesco Field at Mile High will control the division. So with respect to the Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs — who are a combined 4-14 this season — when it comes to football rivalries in this town, nothing beats Denver vs. San Diego these days.

"There is no love lost between these two teams," Graham said.

The two teams scuffled on the field at Qualcomm Stadium on Oct. 19 before the start of Denver's 34-23 victory, and the game was as chippy as any the Broncos have played this season.

And now, with the Broncos coming off a three-game losing streak and the Chargers surging with those four consecutive victories, it is realistic to expect a similarly intense game Sunday.

"I do think the passion that they have for playing this game and this team, it's hard for it not to carry over to the coaching staff, or anyone else in the building for that matter," coach Josh McDaniels said. "When you feel that way about another team, it doesn't mean you disrespect them, it just means that you know this game means a little bit more than others."

The Chargers have won four of the past five division titles — the Broncos won the other, in 2005 — and their recent success against the Broncos is largely because of quarterback Philip Rivers, who has won 5-of-7 games against Denver since becoming the starter in 2006.

Combine that record with his loudmouth on-field personality and his feud with former Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler, and the result is that Rivers might be the most disliked opposing player for Broncos players and fans alike.

"He's a rare trash-talker; you don't see quarterbacks trash-talking," Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said. "I'm used to it now. It was shocking to see him do it at first. I know what kind of person he is now, got to talk to him a little bit, and he's just a competitor."

For Graham, his distaste for the Chargers goes beyond just his Broncos days. Graham was on the New England team that came from behind to beat the top-seeded Chargers 24-21 in a playoff game at San Diego in January 2007. Patriots players, including Graham, rushed the field and danced at midfield, on the Chargers' lightning bolt logo.

Chargers star running back LaDainian Tomlinson later called it a "no class" move.

The next season, Graham was on the Broncos team that lost at home 41-3 to San Diego.

"For me, that's when it really started with the not liking the Chargers, because they got all mad about that (the dancing). And then the next year, when I came here, they were doing the same thing," Graham said. "It was just like they were hypocrites or something."

Compare the Chargers' success to the Broncos' recent history against the Raiders. Since 2006, the Broncos have won 4-of-6, and the Raiders haven't had a winning season since 2002.

Add in the fact that Mike Shanahan, whose personal hatred for the Raiders was no secret, is gone, and the Raiders rivalry has lost much of its luster.
The Denver Post conducted an informal survey of Broncos fans over Twitter on Wednesday evening, and an overwhelming majority of the respondents tabbed the Chargers as the team's biggest rival. The fans gave two most common reasons: the Chargers' back-to-back-to-back AFC West titles and Rivers.

Broncos fan website Mile High Report conducted a similar survey Thursday, and found a similar response. With more than 1,200 online votes recorded by late Thursday afternoon, 62 percent picked the Chargers, compared to about 20 percent for the Raiders and 17 percent for the Chiefs.

"What I've seen in the comments on the poll, it is almost divided by age group," said John Bena, a longtime Broncos fan who founded Mile High Report three years ago. "The really old-school fans, they picked Kansas City, because that's the oldest rival. Then the older fans that grew up in the '70s-'80s-'90s, it's the Raiders. But for newer fans, from the Super Bowl years on, it's been the Chargers, because the Chargers have been relevant in that time."

McDaniels said he thinks the Broncos' current rivalry with San Diego is born out of respect — for him personally for Chargers coach Norv Turner and Rivers, and for the Chargers' track record over the past several years.

"This team always has been one of the best teams in the league, and we've had to go through them to get to where we wanted to go in New England, and now we've got to do it twice a year here in Denver," McDaniels said.

[rjb1816]

**** graham...that's all i have to say about that

[Bolt4Life]

When Graham gets his ass leveled by Ellison I'm going to laugh my ass off.

And typical Bronco crap just like their fans. There is a difference between dancing in excitement (jumping up and down fist pumping), and specifically making fun of a teams dance, while on their logo. They are such spin doctors.

[JOE KING]

It's good that Rivers has propelled the Chargers to being the chief rival of any team. I hate the DONKS the most out of the division and league and world.

[ReadyToBolt]

Good find. Thanks for posting.

[Johnson]

Good read. No doubt theres a monster rivalry with Denver.

[nvcharger]

screw em, the donks used to be the dirtiest cheap shot chubs in the nfl. so screw em, hope we beat them every year for the next ten years

[DutchCheddar]

Who's Daniel Graham?

[.CHARGER.]

yea really. who is daniel graham. he is a nobody in this league.

[Boltfan.nBoston]

So many errors and misconstrued notions in this article, as the author takes swipes at Rivers, LT, and even the Chargers as an organization that has from the Bronco's perspective only recently become "relevant."

What a joke!

Consider John Bena's uninformed comment cited in the article:

"The really old-school fans, they picked Kansas City, because that's the oldest rival. Then the older fans that grew up in the '70s-'80s-'90s, it's the Raiders. But for newer fans, from the Super Bowl years on, it's been the Chargers, because the Chargers have been relevant in that time."

But here are the facts, folks, the Bronco's first AFC West Championship occurred in 1977. Denver repeated in 1978. The Chargers then won the next three AFC West Championships in 79, 80, 81. So in comparison to the Broncos, the Chargers were clearly a "relevant" AFC West team in the 70's and 80's and anyone who suggests that the Dan Fouts, Kellen Winslow, Charlie Joiner era was "irrelevant" doesn't know what the Hell they're talking about.

Admittedly, there were some rough years that followed, but the Bolts did win the AFC West in 92 and 94. In contrast, the Broncos only won in 91, 96, and 98, which makes for one more AFC West title in the decade than the Bolts.

That's it. One more championship than the Chargers in the 90's. So if the Chargers were irrelevant in terms of the AFC West during that decade, clearly, so were the Broncos.

And as for this current decade, well, the Broncos have won the AFC West once compared to the Chargers four and clearly we're not done.

So the article's point that the Chargers are a new rivalry because they have only recently become "relevant" amounts to simply a misconstrued attempt to strike out at the team who have this decade clearly turned the Broncos into their bicche!