{"id":644764,"date":"2026-01-01T04:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T04:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/644764\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T04:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T04:55:13","slug":"philip-rivers-announces-final-career-decision-before-week-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/644764\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Rivers announces final career decision before Week 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indianapolis Colts<\/a> fell to 8-8 after losing their sixth straight game on Sunday. While the Colts were already eliminated from the playoffs<\/a>, Philip Rivers<\/a> took the field in Week 17 for the team’s final home game of 2025.<\/p>\n

Rivers un-retired and re-signed with the Colts<\/a> in an effort to save Indy\u2019s season after Daniel Jones tore his Achilles. But the 44-year-old quarterback couldn\u2019t pull the team out of its spiral. With the Colts out of the playoff hunt, Rivers announced his re-retirement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m back to the sideline,\u201d Rivers told Kay Adams on the Up & Adams Show. \u201cThis was a fun, three-week blur that nobody saw coming, including myself. And that\u2019ll be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philip Rivers re-retires after 3-game run with Colts\"IndianapolisTrevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Rivers assured Adams that he is done with football, explaining that he only came back after a five-year absence because the Colts presented the perfect situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I was done in 2020\u2026 This was just\u2013 everything just lined up right. Because [had a different team] called, there was no chance. Because, again, it was a place I\u2019d been, a team I was familiar with, the offense was exactly the same, a coach I knew. It was all those things [that] made it a perfect storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley Leonard will start<\/a> for the Colts in the regular season finale. And Rivers is excited to get back to coaching high school football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [returning to the Colts will] kickstart our offseason program to say the least. Maybe some things I say to them they\u2019ll take a little more serious now that I was just out there playing a few weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

After an 8-2 start the Colts hit a wall. Rivers did his best to hold the team together following Jones\u2019 injury. The eight-time Pro Bowler had some vintage moments<\/a> in his surprise three-game return to the NFL. And he struggled at times<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

Rivers carved up the 49ers<\/a> early in Week 16’s MNF matchup and he gave the Colts a chance to win against the Seahawks. But he couldn\u2019t snap Indianapolis\u2019 losing streak.<\/p>\n

Still, the un-retirement wasn\u2019t a total failure. Rivers secured health benefits<\/a> for the next five years with his return. That\u2019s no small thing for a man with 10 children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indianapolis Colts fell to 8-8 after losing their sixth straight game on Sunday. While the Colts were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,3725],"class_list":{"0":"post-644764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-colts","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-indianapolis","11":"tag-indianapolis-colts","12":"tag-indianapoliscolts","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-philip-rivers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115818065035556555","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}