Philip Rivers is officially done with the NFL after announcing his retirement from football for a second time.
The 44-year-old quarterback, who first retired back in 2020, was sensationally brought back to the NFL earlier this month as the Indianapolis Colts scrambled for an emergency signal caller.
Yet after going 0-3 in his three starts, and with rookie Riley Leonard set to replace him for the final game of the regular season against the Houston Texans this weekend, he is now calling it a career for good.
During an appearance on FanDuel’s ‘Up & Adams’ show, Rivers was urged by host Kay Adams to not say he’s ‘done’ just yet on the basis that he can ‘still chuck it’.
But he responded: ‘Hell no, I am [done].’
Adams then asked when he knew he was done, to which he replied: ‘I knew I was done in 2020.’
Philip Rivers is officially done with the NFL after announcing his retirement for a second time
The quarterback, 44, confirmed his career is over to Kay Adams on her ‘Up & Adams’ show
She argued: ‘But hold on, you weren’t [done in 2020] so I don’t know if I should believe you now!’
‘This was just… everything just lined up right,’ Rivers said about coming out of retirement with the Colts. ‘If I just made up a team, I don’t mean the Chicago Bears or the Minnesota Vikings, but had someone like that called there was no chance.
‘[Indianapolis] was a place I’d been, a team I was familiar with, the offense was exactly the same, the coach I knew… all those things just made it the perfect storm.
‘I don’t see [the desire to play on] being there. My mum asked me the same question. She was like, “So if someone wanted you to play next year would you consider it?” And I was like, “No way.”‘
He then added: ‘I’m back to the sideline. This was a fun three-week blur that nobody saw coming, including myself, and that’ll be it.’
Five years after his first retirement, Rivers was installed under center for the Colts in a remarkable move which sent shockwaves through the NFL.
However, the former Chargers quarterback failed to prevent Indianapolis from falling out of playoff contention.
Barring another dramatic U-turn, last week’s 23-17 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars will go down as his final appearance.
Rivers was signed by the Colts as an emergency quarterback five years after first retiring
Rivers struggled against the Jaguars, before admitting after the game: ‘I thought this is probably the worst game I’ve had of the three… I just couldn’t get in really any sync or rhythm.’
But he insisted he would do it all again. ‘I told you guys I wasn’t going to have any regrets about coming back and I don’t,’ he said Sunday.
‘Other than us not winning… it’s been an absolute blast for three weeks. If I go back and say, “All right, now you know everything’s going to happen, what are you going to do?” I’d do it all again.
‘It’s been absolutely awesome. So, if it’s the last one, it’s the last one.’
The veteran, a father of 10 and grandfather of one, was coaching his son’s high school football team before coming out of retirement to join the Colts, who had lost both Jones and Anthony Richardson to injury.
