After 17 years playing at the highest level, former NC State star quarterback Philip Rivers has decided it’s time to bring his NFL career to a close. Rivers’s legacy should not be understated, solidifying himself in not only NC State football’s history, but NFL history as well.
His path to greatness was certainly not as clear-cut as many would think, coming out of his Alabama high school as a two-star recruit in 2000. It was Chuck Amato and the rest of the coaching staff at NC State who gave Rivers the opportunity he needed to create a name for himself. That didn’t seem to take him all that long, using his first season as a member of the Wolfpack squad to start building his NFL draft resume.
Managing to throw for 3,054 yards and 25 touchdowns in his freshman season was just the beginning for Rivers, who continued to dominate the ACC over his four-year stint at NC State.
His efficiency with the football could not be understated, leading the ACC in pass completion percentage in 2001 and again in 2003, where his 72% completion rate was enough to lead both the ACC and NCAA. Rivers also led the ACC in passing yards in 2002 and 2003, finishing his career with 13,484, enough to make him the ACC all-time leader and No. 14 all-time in the NCAA.
Rivers’ extremely impressive senior campaign, in which he threw for 4,491 yards and 34 touchdowns on college football’s best 72% completion percentage, only solidified his legend status at NC State.
Fortunately, for his sake, that status, along with his stellar play over his four years in college, was enough to skyrocket him up the draft board in the 2004 NFL Draft. As the second quarterback taken in 2004’s draft, Rivers’s career was supposed to begin with the New York Giants who drafted Rivers with the fourth overall pick.
That didn’t last for long, however, with the first quarterback taken, Eli Manning, refusing to play for the San Diego Chargers, who drafted him No. 1 overall. A trade was quickly made between the two teams, sending Manning to the Giants, where he was content with playing, and Rivers to the Chargers along with some draft picks.
The whole ordeal seemed to work out for both parties, despite what many thought at the time, with both quarterbacks having Hall-of-Fame careers. The 2004 draft class, which also includes Pittsburgh Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger, will certainly go down in history as one of the more elite groups in NFL history.
Rivers came into a Chargers franchise that had been dealing with a bit of a revolving door at the quarterback position over the few seasons before he was drafted. That revolving door of Drew Brees and Doug Flutie didn’t subside upon Rivers’s arrival either, forcing him to sit on the bench for his first two seasons in the league.
It was after the 2005 season that the Chargers decided to part ways with Brees, who was at the end of his rookie contract and suffered a torn labrum in the last game of the season.
Brees would move on to the New Orleans Saints where he would also have his own storybook career. The vacancy at quarterback in San Diego was Rivers’ for the taking and take it he did, and he never looked back.
Spending 16 seasons in a Chargers uniform, Rivers battled the odds time and time again to get in the position he is today. While his career was never defined by his team’s success, never making a Super Bowl appearance and posting a record of 5-6 in the playoffs with the Chargers, Rivers was never hesitant to send the ball down the field.
One of his more memorable performances in a Chargers uniform came in the 2007 AFC Championship game against the undefeated New England Patriots. Tom Brady and the Pats seemed untouchable in this season and were for the most part.
While he wasn’t able to walk off of the field with a win, Rivers managed to play the game on a torn ACL, earning respect from nearly everyone in the league. It would be a career-defining moment, having been able to show his ability to endure hardships and overcome the odds to even play in the game, for Rivers, whose grit was one of his defining characteristics on the football field.
When the Chargers decided it was time to move on from Rivers after the 2019 NFL season, the veteran quarterback decided that he still had more in the tank. He joined the Indianapolis Colts on a one-year deal to prove that there was unfinished business as it pertained to his career.
His 4,169 yards and 24 touchdowns this past season were enough to earn the Colts an AFC wild card berth, where they were eliminated by the Buffalo Bills, who are still in contention for a Lombardi trophy.
While it certainly wasn’t the storybook sendoff some of the great quarterbacks have seen in the past, the importance of Rivers’ career cannot be understated and should be looked upon as one of the greatest of all time.
Even without that elusive Super Bowl appearance, the accolades for Rivers’ career go back to his college days. The 2003 ACC offensive and overall player of the year, 2013 NFL AP and PFWA comeback player of the year, eight-time pro-bowler and starter in 240 straight games is an essential piece of NFL history now and will be for the foreseeable future.
After announcing his retirement from the NFL, Rivers managed to end his pro career at fifth all-time in passing yards with 63,440. He also ranks fifth all-time in both passing touchdowns with 421 and passes completed with 5,277.
Regardless of his lack of silverware in the trophy cases at the various organizations he played for, Rivers has earned his spot in the Hall of Fame one day to couple his placement in the NC State Hall of Fame. If things do go according to plan, Rivers would join Bill Cowher as the only other former NC State player to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Rivers retires from a career certainly characterized by its peaks and valleys. Regardless of whatever lows he faced during his times as a football player, his legendary status was earned in every aspect of the word.
In the words of Bills coach Sean McDermott following the wild card loss suffered by the Colts a couple of weeks ago, Rivers is a “high-character man and a guy with great core values.” Pair those attributes with an absolute cannon of an arm and superior trash-talking ability, and you have one of the all-time greats.
Thank you Philip Rivers for such an amazing career.
