page_title: Los Angeles Chargers
section_title: 1995–2001
hierarchical_section_title: Los Angeles Chargers / Franchise history / 1995–2001
caption_attribution_description: w:LaDainian Tomlinson tossing a football before a game in November 2008.
context_page_description: The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League as a member club of the league's American Football Conference West division. Starting in 2020, the Chargers will play their home games at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, which the club will share with the Los Angeles Rams.
  The Los Angeles Chargers was founded on August 14, 1959, and began play on September 10, 1960, as a charter member of the American Football League. They spent their first season in Los Angeles before relocating to San Diego in 1961 to become the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers joined the NFL as result of the AFL–NFL merger in 1970. The return of the Chargers to Los Angeles was announced for the 2017 season, just one year after the Rams had moved back to the city from St. Louis. They have previously played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during their first stint in Los Angeles, Balboa Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium while in San Diego and Dignity Health Sports Park, formerly named StubHub Center, from 2017 to 2019 while SoFi Stadium was under construction.
context_section_description: The Chargers' follow-up year in 1995 did not bring the same success of the previous season, but the team still managed to get into the playoffs with a five-game winning streak to end the season at 9–7. However, in the first round, the Chargers were eliminated by the Indianapolis Colts in a 35–20 defeat.
  In 1996, running back Rodney Culver and his wife, Karen, were killed in the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Florida Everglades. Culver was the second player in team history to die while on the active roster after David Griggs was killed in a one-car accident in Davie, Florida, 11 months earlier. In 1997, Ross and Beathard were at odds with one another, resulting in Ross and his staff being released. The Chargers selected Kevin Gilbride to become their new head coach. Gilbride, whose coaching background with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Oilers featured a more open passing attack, would mark a major change in offensive style from the ball control ground game of Ross. However, the Chargers struggled in pass protection that year, resulting in Humphries suffering several concussions and his retirement from the game. To replace Humphries, Beathard drafted quarterback Ryan Leaf after the Indianapolis Colts selected Peyton Manning with the first pick in the 1998 NFL Draft. The Chargers traded several players and draft choices to the Arizona Cardinals in order to move up to the second pick and select Leaf. In 1998, the Chargers went 5–11. Said safety Rodney Harrison, "If I had to go through another year like that, I'd probably quit playing."
  Gilbride was replaced by interim head coach June Jones, who was on the Chargers' staff before the hire. Jones left the team at the end of the season to coach at the University of Hawaii and the Chargers named former Oregon State University head coach Mike Riley as their new head coach. Leaf wound up having a disappointing career with the Chargers due to poor play and frequent conflict with both Chargers management as well as the press and his teammates, causing his release after the 2000 season. He has been arguably the biggest draft bust in NFL history, and his failure to be the player the team envisioned was seen as a black mark on the franchise. Quarterback Jim Harbaugh, who was acquired in a trade with the Baltimore Ravens for a conditional draft choice in 2000, became the Chargers starting quarterback. Beathard retired in April 2000 and was replaced in January 2001 by John Butler, former general manager of the Bills. From 1996 to 2003, the Chargers had eight straight seasons where they were .500 or worse.
  In 2001, Norv Turner, the former head coach of the Redskins, was named offensive coordinator by Riley. Turner installed the offense that he coached with the Dallas Cowboys under Jimmy Johnson. Turner learned the offense from Ernie Zampese, former offensive coordinator during the Coryell era, while the two were on the Los Angeles Rams coaching staff. The Chargers signed Heisman Trophy winner free agent quarterback Doug Flutie, formerly with the Bills, and traded the team's first overall selection in the 2001 NFL Draft to the Atlanta Falcons for their first-round selection (5th overall) and third-round selection in the same draft. In addition the Chargers obtained wide receiver-kick returner Tim Dwight and the Falcons' second-round draft selection in the 2002 NFL Draft. The Chargers used that selection in the 2001 draft to select Texas Christian University running back LaDainian Tomlinson and their own first pick in the second round to select Purdue University quarterback Drew Brees.
caption: The Chargers drafted running back LaDainian Tomlinson in the 2001 NFL Draft. He became their all-time rushing leader.
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