What do you do if you’re a 37-year-old man, happily married to your junior high sweetheart, with nine kids together? Oh, and did I mention that you have upwards of $200 million earned in your career?
If you’re Los Angeles Chargers QB Philip Rivers, well, you just keep rolling along.
Ol’ Man Rivers Keeps Rolling Along…..But For How Much Longer?
“This is the year”, they say. This is the year the Los Angeles Chargers draft their quarterback of the future. The quarterback who will sit for a year or two and learn behind the man who’s been under center for the team for the past hundred years or so.
But isn’t that what “they” have been saying for a few years now? As veteran Chargers QB Philip Rivers keeps rolling along, year after year, there always seems to be a certain group of fans and media members, probably especially media members, who lose countless hours of sleep worrying about who the Chargers will get to succeed Rivers when he eventually walks away from the game.
Of course, it’s nothing new for followers of NFL teams to wonder and worry about who will be the heir apparent for their team’s most important position.
But some things about today’s NFL are different. Since so many rules have been changed or added to protect quarterbacks, guys like Tom Brady, Drew Brees and, yes, Philip Rivers, might just be able to play into their forties and beyond (Tom Brady is still playing, right?).
Maybe a little refresher course on Rivers is in order. He’s 37 years old. The 2018 season was his thirteenth as the Chargers’ starting quarterback. And in terms of quarterback rating and QBR, he just had the second-best season of his career. In short, it doesn’t appear the guy will be slowing down any time soon.
Full disclosure: I’m a big Rivers fan. I like just about everything about him. His fiery, sometimes in-your-face attitude on the field. His unorthodox throwing motion. Heck, I even like the fact that he’s married to his junior high sweetheart and they have nine kids! I mean, come on, that’s almost 10!
Having said all that, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see the team select a quarterback at some point in the draft later this month. It’s certainly never a bad idea to prepare for your team’s future at the most important position in sports. And it does seem to me to be a fairly deep draft with regard to quarterbacks.
The problem with this scenario, as I see it, is that with the way Philip Rivers is playing right now, any quarterback the Chargers draft might just ride the bench for the duration of his rookie contract. Who’s to say Rivers won’t play for another four or five years? He was quoted recently as saying that it’s a year-to-year thing for him now. And why shouldn’t he play for several more years, especially when he’s never been better?
If you are one of those fans or media members who obsess over when the Chargers will draft their quarterback of the future, then you’re probably also asking why someone whose career earnings are reportedly upwards of 200 million dollars would keep playing, risking injury and what not.
I don’t know why. But, you know, he does have nine kids. Maybe he needs the money.