Here's a Guy Rooting for the "Chuck Muncie Bowl"
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by user Manny Stiles
(Or "Wes Chandler Bowl" if you prefer...)
Here's a guy (me) rooting for a Saints-Chargers Super Bowl, but not for the regular reasons...
Yeah, yeah... Drew Brees played for San Diego then went to New Orleans too... but IF it happens, we'll all be sick of the Drew Brees slobberfest too quickly, so I'll take the first swing to beat them to the punch. Brees wasn't traded.
Ahh... Chuck Muncie. 6'3" 230 pounds of smack you in the grill and look like an accountant while doing it!
For about 2 months now I can't get that spectacled bastard out of my head!
Maybe you remember him, maybe you weren't born yet. But man... Chuck Muncie! I still remember him as being the guy that enabled me to comprehend trades and player movement in pro sports. (Huh?)
Back in 1980, I got a pack of Topps Football cards and one of the cards was a New Orleans Saints RB named Chuck Muncie. I didn't know a damned thing about him except it was clear he had some big old horn rimmed glasses and I thought "How does he play with those on?", and I had a relative that lived near Muncie, Indiana. These things strike me personally as curiously interesting, but no biggie, I went on with my life.
Along came 1981 (also known the tailend of my no-logical-explanation-"Steve Bartkowski/Atlanta Falcons-obsessed years) and I was still collecting cards. Well, one day, I got another Chuck Muncie card, now he had billboard-sized goggles instead of the glasses, and my cousin still lived near Muncie, Indiana (I LOVE geography) but one VERY weird thing caught my attention... He wasn't in a Saints uni anymore, he was on the Chargers... WTF? How did THIS happen?
So I turned the card over and sure enough, it said he was traded in 1980. Well, being the inquisitive one I am, I needed answers! I asked everyone who I thought could add insight, "what happened? What does this mean?" Few cared to pay attention to me, fewer cared to answer my query, even fewer yet had an answer that would suffice.
I knew guys could go from one team to another. Before the 1981 season, the Chargers "lost" another goggle-eyed player, potent WR John Jefferson to the obscurity of Green Bay. He had a big press conference and all, but Muncie moved to a different team IN-SEASON! Why? HOW?
It was then I was given my first real lesson on trades. Because soon after my first foray into these strange transactions, the Chargers and Saints pulled off another trade! This time I caught it on the late night news and read ALL about it in the paper the next day (Ah, the nostalic-waxing pre-internet days of yore...) High flyin' WR Wes Chandler went from 'Nawlins to sunny San Diego. I was hooked on this trade stuff!! (I really do miss trades in football)
Well, it just so happened that the Chargers played a game on TV soon thereafter and I watched intently. Yep, there was Chuck pounding through the line, delivering blow after blow, he was quite a punisher. Wes Chandler made up for what JJ took to Green Bay and never had again, but for one outstanding playoff game in 1982 (against the St Louis Cardinals, big whoop!) But Chuck Muncie! Damn! I was a fan. I mean, he was no Earl Campbell (who was a living god in my world by then) but he was a fine substitute for a late Sunday afternoon game...
Now, Chuck Muncie had a few quirks in his game. Sure he could run right through or over you. BUUUUUT... He had a tendency to fumble... um... often. Let's just say... what's the opposite of glue? Who cares? His eyewear was remarkable! And he was a BIG back, which in those days was what football was about. Because of Chuck, I followed the Chargers for the next couple years and really liked the "Air Coryell" offense; Who didn't? It was Dan Fouts flinging and Chuck Muncie bell-ringing. There was All-Pros Charlie Joiner and TE Kellen Winslow (the all-time great Dad, not the all-time great motorcycle rider), Wes on the other side, a worn-down John Cappelletti... hell, a young, soon-to-be all-time all-purpose guy named James Brooks was a backup! They even had a pretty decent kicker with an absolute fabulous name, Rolf Benirschke (pun intended warning) to boot! (Hey, what ever happened to foreign born kickers?) The Chargers had WEAPONS!
Chuck Muncie led the NFL in touchdowns in 1981 with 19 - back when 19 TDs meant something! (How old do I sound saying that?) And the Chargers went 10-6, only twice scoring under 20 points in a game, racking up 478 points on the season and winning the AFC West (Back when that meant something). They were really fun to watch!
So around came the playoffs and I was hooked on this team. They were a higher-flying, higher scoring version of my beloved Falcons (long live William Andrews, his neck collar and the "Alfreds" - Jenkins and Jackson) who were falling apart by 1981. As luck had it, one of my older brothers was a diehard Dolphins fan and that's who the Chargers were to play in the AFC divisional playoff. One more reason to root for the Bolts!
I won't go into details of what happened that day in Miami in January 1982. If you don't know, I can't explain it justifiably anyway; Chuck had 120 yards and a TD, Chandler had 106 yds recieving. I'll just say it was the GREATEST football game ever played and I watched the WHOLE thing (on TV of course) and never wanted it to end. I still watch every playoff game with the hopes it will go 2, 3 OTs or more... but they never do. (I'll settle for at least ONE very lengthy overtime Super Bowl, football gods!?!?!)
I was sad when the Chargers had to play the next week in the Arctic (and general) Hell of Cincinnati, Ohio the next week. What was it? -164 degrees (Farenheit, Celcius... doesn't matter)? It just was not fair to the sun-drenched San Diego Chargers. (The worst playoff weather B.S./ripoff of fortune I ever watched along with the Eagles-Bears Fog Bowl)
Those Chargers should have gone to the Super Bowl. Dammit. They would have beaten the 49ers and derailed the whole Joe Montana legend, thereby leaving the door wide open for "Tom Brady, Best Ever?" debates to be rendered undebatable (...let's be honest. Even I would take "the Jeter of Football", Tom Brady over Terry Bradshaw) OK, maybe it did work out for the best... (damned universe, always doing what works best anyway)
Now we're a few weeks away from the next Super Bowl. I won't cry if it doesn't happen. I just want Chuck Muncie to get his redemption. He played half of his career in New Orleans, half in San Diego. I want to know how he's been and what he's doing. I love the human element of the games, especially when it isn't a hit-you-over-the-head story like Brees vs. Rivers, etc, so forth... ad nauseum.
I want Wes Chandler to get his recognition (he started in New Orleans and ended in San Diego). I want to see a team that's never been there get in (Saints), I want to see a team that's never won (Either/Or). I want the Chargers and Saints in the Super Bowl, in Miami. I want it to go to 7 OTs!!! OK, at least TWO. I think it would be kinda fitting. (I'll even give my brother a call with a fist full of salt to rub in old wounds...heh heh heh)
