Philip Rivers is getting together the children and heading out into the nightfall.
After 17 NFL seasons, Rivers revealed to Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune that he’s resigning.
“It’s just time,” Rivers told Acee. “It’s just right.”
The 39-year-old just finished his solitary season in Indianapolis.
“Philip is one of the fiercest competitors and most loyal teammates that our game has ever seen,” Colts coach Frank Reich said in a statement. “His unwavering conviction as a leader and elite intelligence contributed to his Hall of Fame football career. Philip made our game better and the National Football League was fortunate to have him.”
Likewise with most maturing QBs, it was a here and there season as he got adjusted to his new club following 16 years with the Chargers in both San Diego and Los Angeles. Indeed, even yet, in the Colts’ season finisher misfortune to the Buffalo Bills, the veteran QB demonstrated he could at present make plays.
The choice to leave wasn’t on the grounds that his ability had dispersed.
“I can sit here and say, ‘I can still throw it. I love to play,'” Rivers told Acee. “But that’s always going to be there. I’m excited to go coach high school football.”
Rivers had plans to be the head football trainer at St. Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope, Ala., upon his retirement. The veteran said realizing he’d make a plunge directly into that gig helped settle on his decision easier.
“What has helped me come to this (decision) is the growing desire to coach high school football,” he said. “That’s what I’ve always wanted to do. It’s been growing. I can’t wait.”
Rivers leaves sitting with the fifth-most passing yards in NFL history at 63,440, fifth-most passing TDs at 421 and fifth-most pass culminations with 5,277. The eight-time Pro Bowler and 2013 Comeback Player of the Year victor was an iron man, playing in 252 straight games, including end of the season games. Streams hadn’t missed a begin since taking once again as the Chargers QB full-time in 2006. Streams completed his vocation with eight successive seasons with 4,000 or more pass yards – the third-longest streak in NFL history behind just Drew Brees (12) and Matt Ryan (10).
“It was awesome,” Rivers said of his career. “A young kid from Northern Alabama who grew up wanting to play pro ball. I got to do it.”
The solitary thump on Rivers’ Hall of Fame application is the absence of profound postseason runs. Prominently, be that as it may, he played through a torn ACL during the Chargers’ AFC Championship misfortune to New England in 2007.
The Colts were keen on bringing Rivers back for another season, yet the veteran QB felt like this was the opportune chance to leave.
“This is the first year I felt like the ending was real,” he said. “We talked about it other years, but we knew we weren’t doing it. This year felt different. … It just seemed right.”
The decision currently makes the Colts an excellent objective for any veteran QB searching for a triumphant club this offseason. The pieces are there in Indy to make a profound postseason run. The inquiry is whether Indy GM Chris Ballard will indeed corral a veteran sign guest or slant more youthful this time around.
For Rivers, his exit is a misfortune to the NFL. One of the game’s most important characters, from his wonky-looking tossing movement and buckaroo mentality to his twang waste talking and wrangler clothing, there was nobody very like Rivers beginning to end.
The QB will presently take his abilities to Alabama secondary school football. For those youthful players, they’re getting a dadgum special coach.
