{"id":651598,"date":"2026-01-03T21:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/651598\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T21:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:05:11","slug":"philip-rivers-addresses-his-football-future-after-improbable-return-to-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/651598\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Rivers Addresses His Football Future After Improbable Return to NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philip Rivers<\/a> is retired \u2026 again.<\/p>\n

(And it sounds like this one is going to stick.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI am,\u201d Rivers said when asked if he was done playing on the Wednesday, December 31, episode of the \u201cUp & Adams\u201d<\/a> podcast, confirming that the 44-year-old quarterback will not be returning to the NFL to play for the Indianapolis Colts \u2014 or any team, for that matter \u2014 in the upcoming 2026-2027 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a son who will be a senior and that St. Michaels football team is ready to go,\u201d he added. \u201cMy second son will be a 9th grader, so they\u2019ll be on the same team together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"FEATURE
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n Related: NFL Quarterback Philip Rivers\u2019 Family Guide: Meet His Wife and 10 Kids<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNFL quarterback Philip Rivers and his wife, Tiffany, have 10 kids and one grandchild \u2014 the perfect number to field their own football starting lineup. While the Chargers legend and Indianapolis Colts veteran will be the first to tell you raising 10 kids as a professional athlete isn\u2019t easy (as if you needed to be [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

Rivers has been coaching the St. Michael Catholic High School football team in Alabama since the 2020 season \u2014 when he retired the first time. His son, Gunner, will play his last season as the team\u2019s quarterback next year and Rivers hopes his coaching advice will hold some more weight after his recent NFL stint.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be fun. It\u2019ll kickstart our offseason program, to say the least,\u201d Rivers said on Wednesday. \u201cMaybe some things I say to them, they\u2019ll take a little more serious now that I was just out there playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivers played the last three games for the Colts after starting quarterback Daniel Jones injured his Achilles<\/a> during the team\u2019s Week 14 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.<\/p>\n

With backup quarterback Riley Leonard also dealing with an injury at the time, Colts coach Shane Steichen gave his old friend a call.<\/p>\n

\"GettyImages-2253851865
\n Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philip Rivers of the Indianapolis Colts interact after the Jacksonville Jaguars won the game at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 28, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana Michael Hickey\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Steichen and Rivers worked together for eight years with the Los Angeles Chargers (formerly the San Diego Chargers) during Rivers\u2019s first time playing in the NFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything lined up just right,\u201d Rivers told podcast host Kay Adams about the situation with the Colts, acknowledging his prior relationship with Steichen.<\/p>\n

He called it the \u201cperfect storm\u201d and said if any other team would have called, the answer would\u2019ve been no.<\/p>\n

Even with a legend like Rivers under center for the last three games, the Colts have lost six in a row and are sitting out of the playoff race. Steichen said that he will be turning to Leonard to quarterback the team in the season finale against the Houston Texans on Sunday, January 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of emotions there,\u201d Steichen said. \u201cBeing 44 years old and coming out of this thing healthy is a blessing for [Rivers], too, as well. So, he\u2019s grateful for that. And like he said, he wouldn\u2019t change anything. Coming back out here with the guys and battling, it\u2019s been an honor and a privilege (to watch).\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\"GettyImages-1538736628
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n Related: Travis Kelce’s Teammate Chris Jones Comments on Star\u2019s Potential Retirement<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tKansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones is weighing in on Travis Kelce\u2019s potential retirement following a disappointing 2025-2026 NFL season. \u201cI hope not, man,\u201d said Jones about Kelce\u2019s possible exit in a postgame interview after the Chiefs\u2019 20-13 loss to the Denver Broncos on Thursday, December 25. \u201cWe have just been through so much [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

Rivers originally came into the league in the 2004 draft, spending most of his career with the San Diego Chargers (he stayed with the team after they moved to Los Angeles in 2017), before finishing his career with the Colts in 2021.<\/p>\n

\t\tThank You!<\/p>\n

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He leads the Chargers in passing touchdowns (397) and passing yards (59,271) during his time with the franchise, and ranks sixth and eighth in NFL history in those categories, respectively.<\/p>\n

At the end of the podcast interview \u2014 and despite a plea from Adams to keep playing \u2014 Rivers seemed content with wrapping up the last stretch of his career, for real this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m back to the sideline,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cThis was a fun, three-week blur that nobody saw coming, including myself. And that\u2019ll be it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philip Rivers is retired \u2026 again. (And it sounds like this one is going to stick.) \u201cI am,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[2005,441,7,2004,392,2381,6,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-651598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-colts","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indianapolis","12":"tag-indianapolis-colts","13":"tag-indianapoliscolts","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115833205045543279","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651598","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=651598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}