This offseason saw the retirement of two big-name NFL quarterbacks in Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys and Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears. What the two men had in common was that their teams chose to move on from them and they decided to retire rather than continue with another team. One NFL quarterback that has no fears that his team will move on is Philip Rivers, the 35-year-old quarterback of the Los Angeles Chargers. When asked about retirement, Rivers shrugged it off and said he has a few years left in the NFL before he hangs it up.
Philip Rivers in Los Angeles
Philip Rivers is 35 and is under contract to the Los Angeles Chargers for three more seasons. Rivers has only played for the Chargers and ended up in San Diego when Eli Manning refused to play for them after being drafted, causing a trade between the Chargers and New York Giants. While Eli has gone on to win a Super Bowl in New York, Rivers has not yet even led his Chargers to a Super Bowl appearance at all.
However, Philip Rivers has put up some great numbers and played on both good and bad teams over his career with the Los Angeles Chargers. He has thrown for 45,833 yards over his career, ranking 12 on the NFL all-time passing yardage list. Rivers passed the Chargers’ former passing leader Dan Fouts last season.
Fouts has 43,040 passing yards over his 15-year career. Rivers has played for 13 seasons. Much like Rivers, Fouts retired without ever winning a Super Bowl, something Rivers wants to rectify.
The future of Philip Rivers
With the Chargers moving to Los Angeles, the team wants to win and they need Philip Rivers to step up to lead them back to the playoffs again.
In 2016, Rivers threw for 4,386 yards nad 33 touchdowns, both good numbers, but he also threw an NFL-low 21 interceptions over the season. He has thrown league-high interception numbers in two of the last three seasons while also throwing for over 4,000 yards in four consecutive seasons.
While Philip Rivers wants to continue to play in the NFL and for the Los Angeles Chargers for a few more years, he seems to have a finish line in sight.
According to Rivers, he wants to retire from the NFL while he can still coach his sons when they start playing high school football. His sons are nine and five, so Rivers would need to retire in around five to six years in order to step away and start working with his sons on their careers.
Philip Rivers did say that he doesn’t see his career as any lesser when looking at Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger winning Super Bowls while he hasn’t. All three quarterbacks were drafted in 2004. Instead, Rivers said he would like to win a Super Bowl for the Los Angeles Chargers, the owners, his teammates, and their fans.
