Padres Star Calls for San Diego to Get NFL Team Again

Gabe Smallson | Mar 19, 2025

Mar 11, 2025; Peoria, Arizona, USA; San Diego Padres outfielder Jackson Merrill celebrates with teammates in the dugout after hitting a home run against the Chicago White Sox during a spring training game at Peoria Sports Complex. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The San Diego Padres haven’t always been the only major sports team in the area. 

Longtime fans and those who lived in the city before 2017 know all too well that the National Football League’s Los Angeles Chargers once shared the city — and, from 1969 to 2003, the stadium — with the Padres.  

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The San Diego Chargers were established in 1961 after a sole season in Los Angeles. They played the next six years of their franchise at Balboa Stadium before moving to San Diego Stadium in 1967.

The stadium may be better known as Jack Murphy Stadium — the naming rights honoring the sportswriting giant who many consider a major force in getting the Chargers to San Diego — from 1981-1997, or more recently as Qualcomm Stadium from 1997-2017.

When the Padres' franchise was first established in 1969 as part of the four expansion teams in MLB, they shared San Diego Stadium with the Chargers.

As Friar faithful now know, the gorgeous Petco Park was ready for the Padres to move into after almost four years of construction in 2004. Unfortunately, the Chargers went back to L.A. in 2016.

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Despite only being 13 years old when the Chargers went back to Los Angeles, one of the Padres' best young superstars in Jackson Merrill spoke on how impactful it would be to have a football team in the city. 

Merrill witnessed a different kind of 'football' team in San Diego recently as the San Diego Union-Tribune's Kevin Acee reported that fellow superstar Manny Machado treated a few teammates to a private jet trip to an SDFC Major League Soccer match.

The newest MLS team is one in which Machado is a minority owner.

“It was sick,” Merrill said. “It was so sick. San Diego should have more teams. We should have an NFL team again.”

The soccer team plays at the same grounds where the San Diego Chargers and Padres once had their shared home. The stadium doesn't just have a new name — Snapdragon Stadium — but the venue looks unrecognizable to the football and baseball games of the past.

Perhaps one day the wishes of Merrill and many San Diego residents will come true, and an NFL team will return to the area.

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For more Padres news, head over to Padres on SI.