In their football team’s brief return to San Diego this week, the Spanoses reduced a man to tears — and not because they moved the Chargers to Los Angeles.
Former Chargers receiver Anthony Miller, whose bye-bye speed and 40 touchdowns revved up San Diego crowds, said he wept with joy Tuesday when Dean Spanos and John Spanos told him he’s going into the Chargers Hall of Fame.
Stunned because in other years he didn’t get in, Miller said he dropped to his knees and cried.
A lot, the 61-year-old Miller added with a laugh.
“I’ve been wanting to get in this for the longest,” he said during the team’s training-camp practice at the University of San Diego.
“A lot of the guys that are in it, I played with them,” Miller said, mentioning Junior Seau and Gill Byrd. “And, it’s something that’s for life.”
If Miller were in his 20s, Justin Herbert might’ve floated back to Los Angeles instead of taking the team bus Tuesday afternoon.
Cornerbacks feared the 5-foot-11, 190-pounder’s speed. Able to track passes as far as Stan Humphries could throw them, Miller also ran past kick-coverage units, going 91 yards for a touchdown as the Chargers beat the Raiders at Jack Murphy Stadium.
Miller’s selection aptly pairs him in the Chargers Hall of Fame with Charlie Joiner, his former position coach of his and a Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver.
“Charlie Joiner taught me how to be a pro, taught me how to watch film, taught me all the traits you need to be a great receiver,” said Miller, who made four Pro Bowls in a Chargers tenure from 1988 through 1993.
An amateur track star in Pasadena, Miller didn’t play high school football until his senior year.
He logged two busy football seasons at Pasadena City College and another one with Tennessee before an injury nixed most of his senior year with the Vols.
Chargers general manager Steve Ortmayer drafted him 15th overall. “Took a chance on me,” Miller said.
Miller wouldn’t have survived in the NFL, much less thrived, without being able to counter and endure the sport’s brutality.
Load management wasn’t a thing in 1988, as Miller found out not long after his agent, Bruce Allen, hashed out the receiver’s first contract with Ortmayer.
“We went 17 days straight, two-a-days,” he said of the morning and afternoon sessions in his first training camp, overseen by coach Al Saunders.
It didn’t matter that Miller was a speedy receiver who was taken highly in the draft.
Roughing him up was fair game.
“They were hitting on seven-on-seven,” he said of pass drills. “And (special) teams, take you down sometimes on one-on-ones.”
Miller’s San Diego tenure wasn’t without dropped passes and injuries, but he missed very few games and evolved fast under Joiner, averaging 15 games, 62 catches, 930 yards and six touchdowns per year.
If Miller lacked one football trait, it was Super Bowl timing.
Miller joined the Broncos as a free agent in March 1994. Ten months later, the Chargers went to the Super Bowl.
“I was definitely happy for them -— (and) a little jealous because I wish I had been there,” he said.
Miller caught 14 touchdown passes two years later from John Elway. After going to Dallas following his third season in Denver, Miller watched as the Broncos won the next two Super Bowls.
Now, he gets his own legacy moment.
Among the Chargers’ elites who will welcome Miller into their club: close friend Wes Chandler, an exquisite receiver with the Air Coryell Chargers.
“So now, I can come up and hang out with those guys and get the shirt that everybody gets that are in” said Miller, who lives in Orange County, looks ultra-fit despite occasional knee and back issues, and coaches a son who’s a receiver with Long Beach City College.
“My kids and grandkids, everybody can see it,” he added.
John Carney, an All-Pro kicker on the Super Bowl team, will be inducted as well.
Next year, here’s hoping the Spanoses select another standout from many decades ago:
Hank Bauer of the “Air Coryell” squads was a special teams ace in an especially brutal era. Bauer, now 72, also served as an effective short-yardage running back and blocker.