Maybe you heard, but 44-year old Philip Rivers suited up at quarterback on Sunday for the Indianapolis Colts. It’s a great story and Rivers played okay considering, but the Colts ultimately fell 18-16 on the road to the Seattle Seahawks.
Rivers ended the day 18 for 27 passing for 120 yards with one touchdown and one interception, which came on his final play of the day in desperation time.
Rivers tried to deflect the attention after the game.
“This isn’t about me,” Rivers said. “We got a team that’s scrapping like crazy to try to stay alive and get in the postseason. So obviously, we’re all disappointed. Came up just short, game kind of played out just how we thought it was going to play out in terms of how we were going to win the game, kind of one of those grind-it-out kind of games. And we didn’t find a way to get it done, is the bottom line.”
In fairness, it really is a fairytale story.
“It’s storybook,” running back Ameer Abdullah said, “but not the side of the story we want to be on.”
Philip Rivers says it was great to be back in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts
This was a big decision for Rivers, who will see his Pro Football Hall of Fame eligibility reset since he’ll now have to wait another five years.
But, he’s obviously not thinking about that too much, he says it just felt great to be back with the team even though the goal is to win games.
“Just being in that team meeting and the meetings last night and everything, and a whole week, these guys are all about it,” Rivers said. “And you can be all about it and you can go after something and I can stand here to say it doesn’t always work out. You know what I mean? You can do all those things and that doesn’t mean you’re going to win, because there’s a lot of other teams that are doing it too that you’re playing against.
“So, I think the mindset and the work ethic, all the things, all the buzzwords you’ve all heard, that’s all here. Ain’t no question about that. You just gotta find a way. It’s a one-score league. It’s what it is.”
Colts head coach liked what he saw from Philip Rivers
Head coach Shane Steichen was on the hot seat coming into the 2025 season and for good reason. Very little was expected from the Colts as he entered training camp with a battle between retread Daniel Jones and first-round disappointment Anthony Richardson.
But, Jones played at an MVP level for part of the year and Indy was the top seed in the AFC earlier in the season. Steichen was on top of the world! Then, the wheels started to come off the wagon, Jones got hurt and now they are starting a guy who was drafted in 2004.
That said, Steichen liked what he saw from Rivers.
“Very encouraged, there’s no question about it,” Steichen said. “For him to go out there and do what he did after five years off, to have a chance to win it, get a game-winning field goal – close to it – with 40 seconds left in a hostile environment against a top defense. Just shows his commitment to coming back and playing the way he did and fighting like crazy for his teammates. I thought that was pretty awesome.”
Well, the Colts are now 8-6 and things aren’t looking good. At all.
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