Shula had a hard time winning here
If San Diego voters had approved “Soccer City” in 2018, destruction loomed.
Workers in Mission Valley would’ve reduced the old football stadium to rubble.
In Florida an old football coach would’ve shed no tears, I’d wager. Don Shula, given the chance, may have blown up the stadium himself, smiling, his square jaw jutting, The Murph defeated, for good and good riddance.
Shula, who died Monday at age 90, expected to win wherever he was, because winning is what he did. His teams won 347 games, including the postseason, the most of any NFL coach. He went to six Super Bowls, winning twice. Of the 33 NFL teams he led, only two had a losing season. His 1972 Miami Dolphins still own the NFL’S only perfect season.
In rougher places than Jack Murphy Stadium, Shula won and won and won, many times against teams better than the Chargers squads he faced at The Murph between November 1984 and January 1995.
Yet in five visits to San Diego during that span, Shula’s Dolphins lost all five games, three as a favorite on betting lines.
There was more to it. The last of those five defeats, said Shula of the playoff setback in January 1995, was “as tough a loss as I’ve ever been around.”
“A bitter disappointment,” he added.
On the same day, at halftime, the Dolphins led 21-6. Did the turnaround begin during intermission? That’s when the power went out in the visiting locker room, causing Shula and team to muddle about in the dark.
Until the five-game losing streak, Shula enjoyed his San Diego visits, winning his two games there in the
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