Los Angeles Chargers: Building the Franchise’s Mount Rushmore
By Jason Reed
Junior Seau
Rest in peace Junior Seau, it has been nearly five years since your tragic passing but your memory lives on. Seau got the closest to a Super Bowl out of everyone on this list, making it not only in 2007 with the New England Patriots, but in 1994 with the Chargers themselves. Although both efforts resulted in loss, Seau did get very close and we all wish he could have secured that ring.
Seau was not just a great player, but a very durable player. Much like Rivers, Seau played in far more games than we normally see in football. Seau’s twenty seasons in the NFL, especially as a defensive player, is absolutely insane. In that time, Seau made twelve pro bowls, eight first team all-pros, and won the 1992 defensive player of the year.
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Of course, not only is Seau a member of the Chargers Hall of Fame but of the Pro Football Hall of Fame as well. This is easily due to the fact that Seau was one of the most valuable players to ever play the game.
Using Football-Reference‘s Approximate Value statistic, Seau is the 15th most valuable player to ever play professional football. Notable names that Seau is ahead of is Lawrence Taylor, Emmitt Smith, and Waltor Payton.
The entire football world, not just Charger fans, miss the presence of Junior Seau in this world. While I myself may have never witnessed Seau as a San Diego Charger, I knew that he was not only a special player but a special person.
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There you have it, if we were to construct a Mount Rushmore for the Chargers these are the four players whose faces would grace the monument. The way Joey Bosa is playing he may one day be on this list as well, it may be optimistic, but that is all us Charger fans have – optimism.