Chargers fans brave 'City of Champions'
By: LOREN NELSON - North County Times sports editor | ∞
BOSTON - Deep in the heart of Baaaaaaawston, revved-up Chargers fans roared in mock disapproval as a woman leaped on top of a bar, lifted her shirt and exposed a massive tattoo etched across her lower back. 
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It read: City of Champions. Underneath the script were logos of the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots.
Minutes later, the throng broke into an off-key rendition of the "San Diego Super Chargers" fight song.
It was early Saturday afternoon at historical Faneuil Hall Marketplace, and already the buildup for today's AFC Championship Game between the Chargers and Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., was reaching an ear-splitting pitch.
"Today, I'll buy you drink," said Rick Carr, a lifelong Boston resident surrounded by rowdy Chargers fans, "but tomorrow, it's war."
Carr was wearing a Patriots baseball cap and T-shirt that read, in Budweiser-style lettering, "Bruschi. King of Linebackers" in homage to beloved New England veteran Tedy Bruschi.
"By the third quarter, we'll be ahead by two touchdowns," Carr predicted. "And the game will be over."
Few outside San Diego County would disagree.
The Patriots are 17-0 and trying to join the 1972 Miami Dolphins as just the second NFL team to finish a season undefeated. The Patriots - who won Super Bowl titles in 2001, 2003 and 2004 - are 14-point favorites and already being labeled as the greatest football team ever assembled.
The 13-5 Chargers, meanwhile, are facing the prospect of playing without starting quarterback Philip Rivers because of a knee injury.
Standout tight end Antonio Gates has a dislocated left big toe and was wearing a protective boot as he hobbled through the team's hotel lobby Saturday. His effectiveness will be limited, if he plays at all.
LaDainian Tomlinson, the NFL's best running back, also is injured (hyperextended knee) but is expected to start.
A forecast that calls for game-time temperatures in the low 20s and winds of 15 to 25 mph also is widely considered to favor the Patriots, who are 25-4 in since 1993 in games played when it's 35 degrees or below.
"I don't think anyone expects it here," Carlsbad's Phil Antonopoulos said about the possibility of a Chargers upset. "We were out last night and we were hanging out at a bar and I was talking to a lot of Patriots fans. And they were very, very confident, almost smug about it."
A city that boasts the reigning World Series champion Red Sox, the NFL's most dominant franchise and the NBA's top team this season in the Boston Celtics has become accustomed to success.
"You've got all these overconfident fans who couldn't win anything for years," Patrick Farley of Carlsbad said. "Now they are winning World Series, their football team is undefeated. When it rains, it pours.
"Good times in Boston."
San Diego never has won a major professional sports championship. In their only Super Bowl appearance, the Chargers were routed 49-26 by the San Francisco 49ers to cap the 1994 season.
Add it all up, and a Chargers' win today would be an upset of historic proportions.
"If the Chargers do win," Antonopoulos said as he surveyed the wild scene inside Sam's Cafe at Cheers, "this city will go silent."
Contact sports editor Loren Nelson at (760) 740-3551 or lnelson@nctimes.com.
Related stories:
Chargers-Patriots: This could be upsetting
A.J. Smith: Man with a plan
Second-year starter quietly excited to lock horns with NFL legend
In 1963, the Patriots didn't stand a chance
All of these and more can be found here:
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I wish they all could be California Girls wrote on Jan 20, 2008 5:00 AM:Big tattoo and big underwear - even if the Celtics win too, it ain't gonna change.
Let's Go Pats! wrote on Jan 20, 2008 8:01 AM:Let's get ready to rumble! Pats over the Doltz
Hence the Name City of Champions wrote on Jan 20, 2008 8:24 AM:Even the NC Times (San Diego) Newspaper recognizes our Champion Status! So go have your sorry Pep Rally in San Diego Loosers! Ha Ha Ha Ha! Go Pats!
Pats 21 -12 over the Doltz! wrote on Jan 20, 2008 4:39 PM:That is the New England Way!
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