Chargers At Houston Texans Playoff Notes

This weekend’s first NFL playoff game, for an eighth time in as many home team Texans’ ‘offs wild card round appearances, matches them with the once L.A. once San Digo, and now again, Los Angeles Chargers.

The pairing evokes memories of the first two AFL Championship games back in 1960 and 1961, won by a Houston team, the Oilers, now the Tennessee Titans, vs the 1960 L.A. Chargers and the 1961 San Diego Chargers.

L.A. (Chargers) have never won a Super Bowl, (0-1) as they were routed by the fifth and last Niners’ title team, in the ’94 season game, and won only one AFL title despite appearing in half of the defunct AFL’s 10 title tilts, all in the first 6 seasons (’60-’65).

The Texans in their 23rd season are one of four NFL teams (there are 32 NFL teams), never to have made a Super Bowl and are technically the only one of the 32 never to have even made a conference title tilt/”semi.” (The other 3 teams, to this point, never to have made a “Supe” are the Detroit Lions, only slight underdogs to change that this season as they are the NFC “1” seed, Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns. The expansion Browns, who started in ’99, also have never made as much as a “semi,” but NFL records include their mostly glorious past as the original “real” Browns with such greats as Marion Motley, Otto Graham and Jim Brown, when they won 4 NFL crowns and played and lost in the final game 5 other times.

Maybe with significant odds vs, (I think it has a “worthwhile” chance) there will be a redux of the ’64 and ’65 AFL Title games, won by the current AFC “2” seed, Buffalo Bills (they were (2-1) in AFL Title games and are (0-4) in Super Bowls) vs the Chargers.

The lone AFL title game win for the Chargers was a (51-10) Keith Lincoln led rout of the then Boston Patriots in the 1963 game.

The legendary George Blanda, pictured above was the Houston Oilers quarterback in both their 1960 and 1961 AFL Title game wins.