Philip Rivers Announces He’ll Coach An Alabama High School Team When He Retires

AL.com – Philip Rivers will be the football coach at St. Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope, Ala., pending his retirement from the NFL — whenever that happens.

The news was announced at a 10 a.m. press conference at the school this morning. Athletic director Paul Knapstein will be the interim coach. Rivers will take over when his NFL career ends.

“I think it is a one year at a time deal,” he said. “You get to 38 and play as long as I have … I’ve expressed publicly and the Colts have said too they hope it’s more than one year. But we take it one year at a time. I love playing. When that time does end, you will get the same passion and work ethic at this school and community that I’ve poured into my career.”

“My dad was my high school football coach, so I want to coach my boys and I want to coach young boys down the road, so I do know what’s next when my playing time’s over, so we did talk about it a little bit,” he said. “I think really where we settled in was: I still love to play. Certainly not coming off my best year, but in a year where I still know I can play at a high level. I did it in spurts. I just didn’t do it consistently enough.”

“It was one of those deals where we said, ‘Well, if there’s nothing else out there, then that’ll be our answer.’ We kind of said, ‘Whatever God wants, so if there’s nothing out there, I don’t want to just try to hang on to play. If nothing’s out there, shoot, we’ll start coaching.’”

Rivers’ oldest son Gunner, currently in sixth grade, apparently is a big part of the timing of decision according to SI’s Albert Breer:

Rivers and I discussed his plan to coach HS football last summer. It's in this MMQB: https://t.co/uPKJ7WktZs; and in this story, too: https://t.co/aZ1yW88oT4.

He was emphatic that he wants to coach his eldest son Gunner, who'll be a sixth-grader in the fall, as a high schooler. https://t.co/d752IUJPy8

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 8, 2020

Given Rivers’ penchant for creating offspring, currently at nine, it’s not entirely implausible that Rivers could field one side of the ball that consists entirely of his children. A bunch of bolo tie-wearing badasses storming whatever Alabama school dares to challenge them. I’m sure that’s the dream of every man whose wife is as prolific at childbirth as Rivers’ is at forcing balls into double coverage.

Either way, you’ve got to respect Rivers for lining up another gig in this pandemic world. Between him and Drew Brees’ post-retirement NBC deal, it’s a bold new age for any decently liked quarterback with longevity. Post-football quarterback career counselor Kristin Cavallari would be so proud of how not lazy and motivated these guys are, that much is for sure.