LUKAS BLANKENSTEIN / CONTRIBUTOR

Curses have long been intertwined with sports. From the curse of the Billy Goat, which fans claim caused the Chicago Cubs to go over 100  years  without  winning a world series, to Bobby Layne promising that the Detroit Lions will  not  win  a championship  for  another  50  years  after trading him. Or the Quinto Partido curse that spectators say prevents the Mexican national soccer team from progressing past the round of 16 in the World Cup. Curses have long been used to explain teams, cities and even countries’ sporting misfortunes. 

One city that might also be cursed is San Diego. In terms of size, San Diego  is  the  largest  city in the U.S. to never win a championship   in   one  of  the  big  five sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS). It’s   not   just   about  the  losses  though,  but  the  way  in which the losses have happened.

The Padres are the final professional team left in San Diego, and they have been largely unsuccessful throughout their time in the city. The team is currently one of the five teams who have never  won a World Series, and they are ranked No. 28 out of 30 teams  in  both  the regular  season and postseason win percentages (.467 and .385 respectively). They are also in the bottom five teams in terms of  playoff  appearances  with five. While the Padres made the World Series in two of their first three playoff appearances, they only managed  to win one game between those two appearances and have not made it since. Just this season, the Padres had another brutal heartbreak. After  going  up  2-1  against  the  rival Los  Angeles  Dodgers — scoring  21  runs  in  their  first  20  innings ­—the Padres  were  completely  shut down,  scoring 0 runs in the last 24.

Padres after loss in playoffs to Dodgers. Photo courtesy of @padres/Instagram

The other longtime former sports team in San Diego was the formerly San Diego, now Los Angeles, Chargers. The Chargers came to San Diego in 1961 and spent 56 seasons in San Diego before leaving in 2016. They have never won a Superbowl, but they won an AFL championship in 1963 before the AFL-NFL merger.  Including  their  time  in  LA,  the Chargers are in the middle, in terms of win percentage, ranked No. 17 with a .497 win percentage. However, they have the third worst team in the playoffs with a .387 win percentage.

Many  of  these  losses have been brutal. Most famous among those losses were the 2006 and 2009 games. In 2006, the Chargers were  14-2  and  the  No.  1  seed in  the  playoffs,  hosting  the  12-4 Patriots in the Divisional round. With a little under seven minutes  left in the fourth quarter and the Chargers up 21-13, free safety Marlon Mcree intercepted an errant fourth down pass by Tom Brady to seemingly seal the game, only to then fumble the football. This  allowed  the  Patriots to continue the drive, eventually scoring before winning the game 24-21. The game ultimately cost coach  Marty  Schottenheimer his job. To add insult to injury, the Chargers had  a chance in the dying seconds of the game to kick a game-tying 54 yard field goal, but the kick  went wide. In 2009, the Chargers were the second best team   in their conference, finishing 13-3. They  hosted the 9-7 New York Jets, but lost 17-14 in  a game that  saw  kicker  Nate  Kaeding miss all  three  of his field goal attempts. The Chargers only made  the  playoffs  one  more  time in  their final seven seasons in San Diego. This stretch of seasons included  2010 , where  the  Chargers had  the best offense and defense by yards gained and allowed, and yet still missed the playoffs.

Part  of   this   curse   has  also been   the    number  of    teams  leaving   San Diego  for  other  cities. In  addition   to   the   aforementioned Chargers, two basketball teams, the San Diego Rockets (1967-1971) and San Diego Clippers (1978-1984) both called San Diego home  before  abandoning the city. Many believe that San Diego is due for another team, including USD junior Rebecca Leiva.

“I think San Diego needs more sports,” Leiva said. “San Diego has a great community who will cheer on more teams.” 

Those wishing for more teams are  in luck. The MLS has announced that a new team, San Diego FC, will begin playing in the 2025 season. In addition, with women’s sports growing in popularity  year  after  year, the FC Wave of the National Women’s Soccer League are set to keep growing.

Admittedly,  it’s hard to  believe that San Diego is cursed because there isn’t the same smoking gun that  many other curses have. There is no grand story as to why San Diego has yet to win a championship. There has been no billy goat being denied from San Diego’s  stadiums like the Cubs, no scorned ex-quarterback promising the  demise of a San Diego franchise like the Lions and no scandal involving San Diego players  faking  their  ages  like in Mexico. For that reason, many San Diego sports fans would disagree that sports in the city are cursed. USD senior Kyle Smeenge disagrees  with the idea of San Diego as being cursed.

“No,  I  don’t  think  we’re  cursed,” Smeenge stated. “I know some of the rough games and seasons, but I still don’t believe we’re cursed.”

Whether or not San Diego is cursed, it is likely to remain up for debate. Cursed or not, San Diego is  certainly high on the list of long suffering sports cities. However, many other teams, cities and countries have been supposedly cursed to never win, only to break through at the end. One day, San Diego might break the curse, if it even exists, that lingers over the city.

San Diego has a history of getting close to big wins, but ultimately losing in the final stages. Photo courtesy of @sandiegofc/Instagram