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The 14-2 San Diego Chargers, the hottest team in the National Football League and the top seed in the AFC, will open the 2006 Playoffs when they host the New England Patriots in a Divisional Playoff game at Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday, Jan. 14 at 1:30 p.m. PST.

The Chargers begin the playoffs as the NFL’s winningest team (14 wins), including victories over both of last year’s Super Bowl participants (Pittsburgh and Seattle) and a 5-0 record against teams that were in the playoffs in 2005. The Chargers are the number-one seed in the AFC for the third time in team history (1979 & ’80) and have won a league-high 10 straight games coming into the postseason. The Chargers are attempting to become the fourth team in NFL history and the first since the Patriots in 2003 to close out the regular season with at least 10 straight wins and win a Super Bowl championship.

This will be San Diego’s fifth appearance in a divisional playoff game and the Bolts have won three of four, including a 22-21 win over Miami in their last game on Jan. 8, 1995. The Chargers are 2-0 in divisional playoff games played in San Diego, including the win over the Dolphins and a 20-14 win over Buffalo on Jan. 3, 1981.

Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer, who recorded the 200th regular-season victory of his career in the Chargers’ 2006 finale against Arizona, fields a team led on offense by NFL Most Valuable Player LaDainian Tomlinson and on defense by Shawne “Lights Out” Merriman. Tomlinson became the first player in team history to win the league’s rushing title with 1,815 yards. He set NFL records for rushing touchdowns (28) and total touchdowns (31), and he finished the year with 2,323 total yards from scrimmage, sixth-most in NFL history. Merriman also was a league leader, racking up an NFL-high 17 sacks, tied for the second-most in a season in team history.

CHARGERS-PATRIOTS SERIES HISTORY

The Chargers and Patriots, two of the original members of the American Football League, have faced each other 32 times in the regular season and just once in the postseason. New England leads the series 17-14-2 and holds an 8-6-1 edge in games that were played in San Diego and Los Angeles. The lone playoff meeting took place in the 1963 AFL Championship Game, a game won by the Chargers, 51-10, at Balboa Stadium. Keith Lincoln electrified the home crowd and a national television audience, racking up 349 yards of total offense, including a 67-yard touchdown run and a 25-yard touchdown catch.

Since 1970, the teams have met only 13 times. From 1973-2001, the Patriots won 10 straight, but the Chargers have since won two in a row, snapping the Patriots’ win streak in dramatic fashion. In 2002, the Bolts defeated the defending Super Bowl champions, 21-14, in San Diego and last season, they again knocked off the defending Super Bowl champs, going into Gillette Stadium in Foxboro and defeating the Patriots, 41-17, in a game that ended New England’s NFL-record 21-game home winning streak.