109 Facts About Philip Rivers

Philip Michael Rivers was born on December 8,1981 and is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League for 17 seasons, primarily with the Chargers franchise.

Philip Rivers played college football for the NC State Wolfpack and was selected fourth overall in the 2004 NFL draft by the New York Giants, who traded him to the San Diego Chargers during the draft.

Philip Rivers helped the franchise win their first playoff game since 1994 and reach the AFC Championship Game in the 2007 season.

Philip Rivers was less successful in the postseason and never made a Super Bowl appearance.

Philip Rivers retired fifth all-time in passing yards and touchdowns, both of which are the highest-ranking among quarterbacks without Super Bowl appearances.

Philip Rivers is second all-time in consecutive regular season starts by a quarterback, having started every regular season game between 2006 and 2020.

Philip Rivers is considered among the greatest quarterbacks to have never played in a Super Bowl.

Philip Rivers was born in Decatur, Alabama, where his father, Steve, was the head coach of Decatur High's football team and his mother, Joan, was a teacher.

Philip Rivers' first start in an official game came in the seventh grade, in 1994.

Philip Rivers has worn the number 17 jersey since the ninth grade, in honor of his father, who wore the same number in high school.

Philip Rivers rejected them in order to go to a program where he would have more playing time.

Philip Rivers enrolled in January and suited up for his first practice as a college quarterback in the spring of 2000.

Philip Rivers directed a 74-yard game-tying drive as time expired.

Philip Rivers threw for a season-high 413 yards to go along with three touchdowns and one interception For the season, Philip Rivers passed for 3,054 yards and 25 touchdowns.

Philip Rivers broke a half-dozen school passing marks, was ACC Rookie of the Week a record eight times, and earned honors as the conference Freshman of the Year.

Philip Rivers led the ACC in passing attempts, completions, yards, and touchdowns.

Philip Rivers was considered a Heisman candidate during the season, but he was not invited to the Heisman Trophy presentation, where he finished in seventh place.

Philip Rivers started 51 straight games and completed a conference record 1,147 passes in 1,710 tries, with 95 touchdowns.

Philip Rivers's career culminated with an NCAA record 51st consecutive college start.

The Wolfpack went to four consecutive bowl games under the leadership of Philip Rivers, winning three of them.

Philip Rivers finished his career at NC State with 13,484 passing yards, 13th all-time among Division I quarterbacks.

Philip Rivers threw 95 touchdown passes, which tied him for eighth all-time with Kliff Kingsbury and Brady Quinn.

Philip Rivers' number was retired before his final home game at North Carolina State.

Philip Rivers was projected to be an early first-round pick in the 2004 NFL draft.

The pre-draft consensus was that Philip Rivers could be selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 11th pick.

However, after Manning indicated before the draft that he would not sign with them, Philip Rivers was their first alternative because the Chargers' head coach at the time, Marty Schottenheimer, had coached him at the Senior Bowl and he liked what he saw.

San Diego selected Manning first, then traded him to New York for Philip Rivers, selected fourth by the Giants, plus draft picks later used by the Chargers on future Pro Bowlers Shawne Merriman and Nate Kaeding.

Philip Rivers was one of 17 quarterbacks taken in the 2004 NFL Draft, along with Manning and the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger.

Unlike Manning and Roethlisberger, who each have two championship titles, Philip Rivers did not reach the Super Bowl during his career.

Philip Rivers retired with the most passing yards and pass completions.

However, due to a protracted contract negotiation with the San Diego Chargers, Philip Rivers only reported to the team during the last week of training camp, and incumbent Drew Brees retained his starting job.

Philip Rivers began the season as the Chargers' third quarterback option, behind Doug Flutie, and ahead of the fourth quarterback on the depth chart, Cleo Lemon.

Unfortunately for Philip Rivers, Brees went on to have a then-career year and was named to the NFL Pro Bowl while winning the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award.

Philip Rivers received very limited playing time, playing in only two games.

Philip Rivers only threw passes in the second half of the last game of the 2004 season, a victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, by which time the Chargers had already clinched a home playoff spot and the AFC West division title.

Philip Rivers was not on the active roster for San Diego's Wild Card Round playoff loss to the New York Jets.

Philip Rivers was promoted to second on the Chargers quarterback depth chart after Flutie was released.

Philip Rivers was unable to beat out Brees for the starting quarterback job in the Chargers' 2005 training camp and preseason.

Philip Rivers completed 12 of 22 passing attempts for 115 yards with one interception and two fumbles.

However, Philip Rivers led the Chargers on their only scoring drive that game, which culminated in a four-yard touchdown run by running back LaDainian Tomlinson.

Philip Rivers was named the Chargers' starter going into training camp.

Football Outsiders projected that Philip Rivers would become an NFL star before the 2006 season due to his spectacular completion percentage in college.

On September 11,2006, Philip Rivers made his first NFL start against the Oakland Raiders.

On November 12,2006, Philip Rivers had the best game of his young career and led the Chargers to an improbable comeback on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Philip Rivers led several 4th quarter comebacks in 2006, and posted the league's highest 4th quarter quarterback rating.

Philip Rivers helped lead the Chargers to the highest-scoring offense in the NFL.

Philip Rivers finished the season with 3,152 passing yards, 21 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions.

In 2008, Philip Rivers led the NFL in multiple categories including touchdown passes, passer rating, yards per pass attempt, and adjusted yards per attempt.

On December 28,2008, Philip Rivers set the Chargers team record for touchdown passes in a season with 34, a record previously held by Dan Fouts, who had 33 in 1981.

Philip Rivers led the Chargers down the field down three points with under two minutes left.

Philip Rivers ended the season with a passer rating of 104.4, the third highest in the NFL, after passing for 4,254 yards, 28 touchdowns, and only nine interceptions.

Philip Rivers led the league in passing yards, throwing for a career-high 4,710 yards.

Philip Rivers recorded 431 and threw two passing touchdowns, but lost to the Oakland Raiders in Week 5.

Philip Rivers was invited to the 2011 Pro Bowl, his fourth invite overall, and started in place of an injured Tom Brady.

Philip Rivers was named the quarterback in the 2010 NFL Alumni Player of the Year Awards over Brady, who was unanimously named The Associated Press 2010 Most Valuable Player.

Philip Rivers was ranked 26th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2011.

Philip Rivers had never thrown more than two interceptions in a game, including seven playoff games.

Philip Rivers had 335 passing yards and two touchdowns thrown to fullback Mike Tolbert but threw two interceptions.

Philip Rivers threw for 378 passing yards and had two touchdown passes to Vincent Jackson but threw two interceptions again.

In Week 5, Philip Rivers threw for 250 yards and a touchdown pass to Malcom Floyd.

Philip Rivers did throw a touchdown to Antonio Gates, his first of the year.

Philip Rivers put up 369 yards, but had two interceptions and a crushing fumble.

Philip Rivers had 385 yards passing and added four touchdowns, but threw three interceptions against the defending champion Green Bay Packers.

Philip Rivers did however, throw two passing touchdowns to rookie Vincent Brown.

Philip Rivers threw for 188 yards and a touchdown to Antonio Gates.

Philip Rivers threw for 240 yards and 3 touchdowns, 2 to Antonio Gates, and the other to Patrick Crayton.

Philip Rivers had 299 passing yards and a touchdown, but two interceptions.

Philip Rivers was named to the Pro Bowl for his 2011 season.

Philip Rivers was ranked 61st by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2012.

Philip Rivers became the seventh fastest quarterback in NFL history to reach 25,000 career yards.

Philip Rivers finished the season with 3,606 passing yards, 26 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions.

Philip Rivers's combined 35 interceptions the two previous seasons led many to wonder whether he was injured or if his career was on the decline.

Philip Rivers was selected to the Pro Bowl for the fifth time in his career.

In Week 17, against the Kansas City Chiefs, Philip Rivers led a fourth quarter and overtime comeback to win the game, and clinch the 6th seed in the AFC playoffs.

Philip Rivers finished the season completing 378 of 544 passes for 4,478 yards, 32 touchdowns and just 11 interceptions; his 105.5 passer rating tied his career high from 2008.

Philip Rivers was named Comeback Player of the Year by both Associated Press and Pro Football Writers Association.

Philip Rivers was ranked 34th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2014.

Philip Rivers was sacked a career-high seven times in the loss.

Later in the season, Philip Rivers suffered from sore ribs and a back injury, but he denied that they affected his performance.

Philip Rivers finished the 2014 season with 4,286 passing yards, 31 touchdowns, and 18 interceptions.

Philip Rivers was ranked 43rd by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2015.

Philip Rivers finished 11 yards short of breaking the franchise single-season passing yards record held by Fouts.

Philip Rivers was invited to the 2016 Pro Bowl as an alternate but declined the invitation, citing personal reasons.

Philip Rivers was ranked 46th on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2016.

In that stretch, Philip Rivers passed for four touchdowns in two separate games.

On October 13,2016, in Week 6, Philip Rivers passed Fouts to become the Chargers' all-time passing yards leader.

Philip Rivers finished the season with nine consecutive games throwing for at least touchdowns.

Philip Rivers posted a rating of 87.9, the second worst of his career.

Philip Rivers was ranked 73rd by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2017.

On December 19,2017, Philip Rivers was named to his seventh Pro Bowl along with his top receiver Keenan Allen.

In Week 17, Philip Rivers became the ninth quarterback in NFL history to reach 50,000 career passing yards.

Philip Rivers was ranked 56th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2018.

The 424 yards was the most Philip Rivers has thrown for in any of his season openers.

Philip Rivers helped lead the Chargers to first win of the season in the following game against the Buffalo Bills.

In Week 9, against the Seattle Seahawks, Philip Rivers made his 200th consecutive start.

Philip Rivers eclipsed 4,000 yards, becoming the third quarterback in NFL history to reach 4,000 yards in 10 seasons or more, joining Peyton Manning and Drew Brees.

Philip Rivers was ranked 17th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2019.

In Week 1, Philip Rivers helped lead the Chargers to an overtime victory over the Colts.

In Week 3, down 7 late in the fourth quarter, Philip Rivers drove deep into Texans' territory with five pass completions but was unable to reach the endzone in the loss.

Philip Rivers posted a 154.4 passer rating with three touchdown passes in the victory.

On February 10,2020, the Chargers and Philip Rivers mutually agreed that he would not be re-signed and would enter free agency.

On March 21,2020, Philip Rivers signed a one-year, $25 million deal with the Indianapolis Colts.

In Week 17 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Philip Rivers passed Dan Marino in passing touchdowns, putting him at fifth all time.

Philip Rivers finished the 2020 season with 4,169 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions.

Philip Rivers recorded his 12th season with at least 4,000 passing yards, tying him with Tom Brady and Drew Brees at the time for second-most in NFL history.

Philip Rivers is a social conservative; during the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, he endorsed former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.

Philip Rivers received an honorary degree, doctor of humane letters, and addressed the class of 2014 at the 125th annual commencement ceremony of the Catholic University of America on May 17,2014.

In 2014, Philip Rivers was part of a campaign to benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego.

Philip Rivers was inspired to coach by his father, who was his high school football coach.