Charles Joiner Jr. (born October 14, 1947) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for 18 seasons in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL), primarily with the San Diego Chargers. In 11 seasons with the Chargers, he earned all three of his Pro Bowl selections, and was named first-team All-Pro by the Associated Press in 1980. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996.
Joiner played college football with the Grambling Tigers and was a three-time, first-team all-conference selection in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). He was selected as a defensive back in the fourth round of the 1969 NFL/AFL draft by the AFL's Houston Oilers, who soon returned him to the wide receiver position. Joiner played three and a half seasons each for the Oilers (1969–1972) and Cincinnati Bengals (1972–1975), missing substantial time through injuries with both teams.
Cincinnati traded Joiner to the Chargers, with whom he played for eleven seasons (1976–1986). He made the Pro Bowl in his first year with the team, but his role was reduced in the following two seasons, nearly leading him to retire as early as 1978. Joiner's career was revitalised once head coach Don Coryell installed his Air Coryell passing offense. He had three consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons from 1979 to 1981, making two further Pro Bowls (1979–1980) and the 1980 All-Pro team.
He retired with the most career receptions, receiving yards, and games played of any wide receiver in NFL history. He was noted for his precise route running, as well as his longevity and late-career success, with 586 of his 750 regular season catches coming after he joined the Chargers. Joiner went on to serve as a wide receivers coach for twenty-six years before retiring completely after the 2012 season.
Early life Charles Joiner Jr. was born on October 14, 1947, in Many, Louisiana, the only child in a low-income family; his father, Charlie Sr., was a truck driver. Joiner attended W. O. Boston High School in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He did not play football until his junior year, preferring baseball, but excelled as an all-state receiver while doubling as a defensive back. He scored 110 points as a senior, the most in the area. Joiner also played high school basketball and was a district champion javelin thrower.
College career
Joiner's parents could not afford to send him to college, but his high school coach told him football would be a good way to earn a scholarship. He was able to secure a place at Grambling College—now known as Grambling State University—to play for head coach Eddie Robinson's Tigers. Future NFL starter James Harris was the Tigers' primary quarterback throughout Joiner's four years at the college, each of which resulted in a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Championship.
After seeing some play on both offense and defense as a freshman, Joiner had a breakout sophomore year as a receiver; he caught 34 passes for 822 yards and 9 touchdowns, and his teammates voted him the Tigers' Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the season. He continued to feature heavily in the passing game for the next two years, setting a Grambling record with 42 catches as a senior, going for 733 yards and 8 touchdowns. He scored two more touchdowns in his final college game, a victory in the 1968 Pasadena Bowl. He was a three-time first-team All-SWAC selection (1966–1968), and finished with 2,066 career receiving yards.
Joiner later credited Robinson as a great inspiration who also pushed him to complete his college degree in accountancy. In 2013, Joiner was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame.
Professional playing career
Houston Oilers (1969–1972)
1969 season Joiner graduated from Grambling in 1969 and was selected in the fourth round of the 1969 NFL/AFL draft with the 93rd overall pick by the American Football League's Houston Oilers. A Corpus Christi Times draft review described him as a having "great speed (4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash) and excellent hands." The Oilers drafted Joiner with intent to use him at defensive back; this upset Robinson, who stated his former player could "beat any defensive back one-on-one" in a press release urging Houston to keep him on offense. Joiner's own expectation was that he would "play a few years," qualify for an NFL pension and then move on to another career.
The Oilers eventually chose to play Joiner both ways as a rookie, installing him as their fourth wide receiver for the 1969 season. He was playing on offense when his rookie season was brought to an end by injury—he was tackled after making a catch in a week 7 victory over the Denver Broncos and suffered a compound fracture of the right arm. Head coach Wally Lemm described Joiner as a "fine young prospect" after the injury.
1970 season Joiner became an NFL player in 1970 when the Oilers joined that league as part of the AFL–NFL merger. He had another injury setback when he broke an arm in the first preseason game. He missed the first five regular season games before returning to face the San Diego Chargers, producing 5 catches for 100 yards and scoring his first professional touchdown on a 46-yard pass from Jerry Rhome. He scored twice in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals later in the season, one of those on a career-long 87-yard touchdown catch.
1971 season Houston moved Joiner up in their depth chart by trading starting wide receiver Jerry LeVias before the 1971 season; the Oilers' general manager John W. Breen gave Joiner's performance in a preseason scrimmage as a reason for the trade. While the Oilers struggled for much of the season, they had one of the highest ranked passing attacks in the American Football Conference (AFC) and Joiner led the team in both receiving yardage and touchdowns.
1972 season: Traded midseason Houston traded Joiner to Cincinnati six games into the 1972 season, on October 24; he and linebacker Ron Pritchard were sent to the Bengals in exchange for running backs Paul Robinson and Fred Willis. Joiner had been leading the Oilers in receptions with 16, covering 307 yards and 2 touchdowns; he had scored in his final game the day before the trade. He said, "I really didn't think it was me they were talking about. I was their leading pass receiver for two years and it really hurt me."
Cincinnati Bengals (1972–1975)
1972 season Joiner said of his new team, "You come to a new situation and you may be a little scared, but everyone here has been friendly and it's been real good," adding that he found passes from the Bengals' quarterbacks to be thrown softer and to be easier to catch.
Cincinnati and Houston were scheduled to meet the Sunday after the trade. Joiner saw limited action with a single catch for 19 yards in a 30–7 win. Overall, he struggled to make an impact with his new team in 1972, catching only eight passes in eight games—he remained on the bench for the entirety of two of these. The Cincinnati Enquirer described him as a "disappointment" who "never quite measured up."
1973 season Joiner's progress was praised by offensive assistant coach Bill Walsh in the build-up to the 1973 season, with Walsh noting a particular improvement in accurate route running. Nonetheless, he entered the 1973 season with his position in the team under threat after the Bengals selected another wide receiver, Isaac Curtis, in the first round of the NFL draft; Curtis was expected to start as a rookie. Joiner suffered another injury setback in preseason, this time to his knee, and began the regular season on the inactive list. Head coach Paul Brown was impressed by his attitude as he fought to regain fitness after the injury, saying "No man ever worked harder or gave it more to get himself back in shape." Joiner returned to face the Cleveland Browns after missing three games but was immediately injured again; he caught a 26-yard pass on the Bengals' first play from scrimmage but suffered a fractured collar bone while being tackled and was believed to be out for the year.
Joiner returned sooner than expected, missing six further games before beginning a consecutive appearance streak that would last for over 13 years. Quarterback Ken Anderson praised Joiner's impact, saying that having both he and Curtis on the field stretched the opposing defense, who could not double cover both of them. Joiner finished the season with 13 catches for 134 yards from his five appearances. The Bengals were successful as a team, winning the AFC Central division with a 10–4 record. Joiner's first playoff game ended in a 34–16 defeat to the Miami Dolphins. The Bengals' passing attack was largely shut down, and he caught only two passes for 33 yards.
1974 season Cincinnati gave Joiner a new multi-year contract in the run-up to the 1974 season. He scored his first Bengals touchdown in week 5, a 65-yarder against Cleveland. He shared time with Chip Myers as Curtis' partner during the year.
1975 season Brown planned to use Joiner together with Myers and second-year receiver John McDaniel as a trio of partners for Curtis in 1975. He was the most successful of the three as the season progressed, posting new career bests of 37 receptions for 726 yards, an average of 19.6 yards per catch. On November 23, 1975, he set a Bengals then-single-game record with 200 receiving yards in a 35–23 loss to Cleveland; it would remain his personal career high.
Cincinnati won a wild card spot in the playoffs with an 11–3 record. They again lost in the first round, this time 31–28 to the Oakland Raiders. Joiner scored his first postseason touchdown as the Bengals came close to rallying from seventeen points behind in the final quarter—he said, "We should have won the ball game, we just ran out of time." It was his final game as a Bengal.
San Diego Chargers (1976–1986)
1976 season: Traded again
On April 1, Cincinnati traded Joiner to the San Diego Chargers for defensive end Coy Bacon. Brown acknowledged that Joiner was coming off a good year, but identified the defensive line as a stronger area of need for his team. Joiner was happy to reunite with Walsh, who had just joined the Chargers as their offensive coordinator. Chargers quarterback Dan Fouts was impressed by his new receiver in preseason: "I love Charlie Joiner. He has a knack for finding the open spot."
Joiner became the Chargers' leading receiver during a successful 1976 season with the team. He had a run of four consecutive 100-yard games early in the year, and secured his first 1,000-yard receiving season with two games to spare. He finished the year with 50 receptions for 1,056 yards (the third most in the league, and 285 more than Curtis had in Cincinnati) while averaging 21.1 yards per catch, and was named second-team All-Pro by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) at season's end.
The trade for Joiner benefited both teams in the short term, as both he and Bacon were named to the Pro Bowl and voted MVP by their respective teams that year. Beyond 1976, Bacon only played one more year in Cincinnati, while Joiner's career with the Chargers covered a further decade.
1977 season
Joiner gave some thought to retirement before committing to play the 1977 season. He was reunited with his Grambling quarterback James Harris on the field, as Fouts was holding out through much of the season. Joiner was often double covered as newly acquired receiver Johnny Rodgers was injured, and their No. 1 draft pick from the year before, running back Joe Washington, was recovering from knee issues. Joiner finished with 35 catches, 542 yards and 6 touchdowns, short of his 1976 performance in each statistic but still enough to lead all Chargers wide receivers.
1978 season