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Hoping for something memorable from the 2014 San Diego Chargers

Ruben J. Gonzalez has another moment of deja vu. He hopes that this foretells of something great to come.

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sport

Like many of you, I hope the San Diego Chargers win this year's Super Bowl. We fans are lucky because it's not farfetched to think that we at least have a chance after last year's memorable run.

Hope; noun: the feeling of wanting something to happen and thinking that it could happen: a feeling that something good will happen or be true.

I have had plenty of hopes come to fruition. Like the time that I was 12 years old and I was hoping that I got the Nintendo SNES Action Set for my birthday.

About a month leading up to my favorite day of the year, my parents asked me if I wanted to have a big birthday party, with which I replied with a polite but stern ‘No!' You see, I knew that by having a birthday party, it would significantly reduce the chances of me getting my first Nintendo system. Why spend money on a D.J or decorations or spend who knows how much it costs for 20 friends to attend a water park? I knew what I wanted and I did not want anything to get in the way. I wanted that Nintendo so bad for my birthday that I even started buying games before I even had a Nintendo system, all in hopes of trying to pressure my parents into buying me one. When the day finally came and we came back from dinner and I blew out the candles to my birthday cake, I knew it was only a matter of time before I would open up the gift of all gifts. This was my Daisy Red Rider BB gun, except the only eye I would be shooting out would be done with the infrared SNES Zapper.

But my parents pulled a fast one on me. They brought me some gifts wrapped inside of some oversized boxes. When I finished opening them, all that I had was clothes and a boom box radio that I was sure I was going to have to share with my brother. I wasn't mad, but I wasn't very happy either. I was disappointed and unfulfilled. Then about an hour passes and as my relatives began to get up and leave my birthday gathering, my dad sneaked out into the garage and with him he brought this large rectangular box, with you know what wrapped inside.

I was, on that day, the happiest person on earth.

The 2014 Chargers off season has the makings of something memorable too! Early in this off season, as the Broncos and 49ers and almost every other NFL team was enjoying the spoils of their free agent signings, GM Tom Telesco sat calmly and stood pat even though every Chargers fan had hoped he would do something extraordinary, namely, to the secondary. Telesco knew that going out and making a splash early on in the process could take away from something greater later on. Along the way, Telesco found a way to re-sign some key veterans in LB Donald Butler, G Chad Rinehart and SP Darrell Stuckey that, despite their lack of rock star significance, was still music to Chargers fans ears. The off season continued and when the 2014 NFL Draft came, the GM stitched together quality picks with CB Jason Verrett, LB Jerry Attaochu, G Chris Watt and NT Ryan Carrethers that should weave seamlessly into the Charger fabric for the foreseeable future.

Still, Chargers fans were not completely content. Soon, the conversations of a solid draft would fade and the notion would sink in that that's all the gifts San Diego was going to receive this off season.

But then GM Tom Telesco sneakily went into HIS garage. And just as Mini-Camp was about to be cut short a day early, Telesco, just like my dad did many years ago, came in with a new gift of his own. On June 25th, he solidified the defense by signing Pro Bowl cornerback Brandon Flowers. A gift that made this team now feel complete. And for at least on that day, making Chargers fans the happiest fans on earth.

Now, all that's left is to play the games. Go Chargers!