I grew up as a baseball collector, but while I was in graduate school I interned for the San Diego Chargers, cleaning up their photo archive. At that time I decided to write my thesis on Sid Gillman, the Chargers first head coach. It was interviewing Sid and his former players that first sparked my interest in the AFL. Since then I have written a couple of books about the Chargers (one AFL, one Coryell era), put together my AFL website, and while they were still in SD, I did a lot of contract work for the Chargers. It was all history-based stuff, a lot dealing with the AFL.
I am drawn to the social aspects of football. I'm fascinated by stories of the AFL boycott and other issues that came about during the Civil Rights Era. I love the story of the underdog AFL taking on the NFL and forcing a merger. I love that the players were just guys, who assimilated into the community with off-season jobs, and were not the whacked out prima donnas that we read about so often with modern athletes.
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