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Philip Rivers is set to take the field for the first time in nearly five years as an NFL quarterback on Sunday for the Indianapolis Colts at age 44.
Despite being on the cusp of Hall of Fame eligibility, Rivers accepted the Colts’ offer to return to the game after the team’s Week 1 starting quarterback, Daniel Jones, suffered a season-ending injury.
For Rivers, it’s just another unexpected twist in one of the NFL’s most unusual stories.
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Rivers is the son of a high school football coach and took over that role himself after temporarily retiring from the NFL.
Rivers is the son of Steve Rivers, former head football coach at Decatur High School and later Athens High School in Alabama. His mother was a teacher.
As a child, Philip contributed to his father’s team as a ball boy, but that’s not all. According to the Los Angeles Times, during games, the younger Rivers would sneak into the referees’ group whenever his father’s offense was close to a first down. There, he would observe how close the ball was to a first down, then spread his hands toward the sideline to signal exactly how far they needed to go to move the chains.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) returns to pass Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, during practice at the Colts practice facility in Indianapolis. (Imagn)
“I felt like I could contribute,” Rivers told the outlet. “I felt like they really needed me to tell them if it was one foot or two feet.”
When the time came for him to begin his own high school career, Rivers played for his father at Athens High School. However, he started his career as a linebacker and didn’t even begin playing quarterback until his junior year.
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But when Rivers moved to quarterback, it worked out for him and his father, as he earned all-state honors and a reputation as the best prep passer in the state of Alabama. This prepared him for a college career at North Carolina State and eventual stardom in the NFL.
When Rivers retired from the NFL after the 2020 season, he followed in his father’s footsteps by taking over as head coach at St. Michael Catholic in Fairhope, Alabama, in 2021. He went 43-15 at St. Michael Catholic in his five years at the helm, and most recently led the school to a 13-1 record in 2025.
Rivers is a father of 10 and some of his new teammates are younger than his own children
Rivers and his wife Tiffany Rivers have been together since middle school and married when Philip was just a sophomore in college in 2001.
Less than a year later, they had their first child, a daughter named Halle in 2002. The head start on building a family gave the couple enough time to build a football-like child roster, as they had nine more children together: Caroline, Grace, Gunner, Sarah, Peter, Rebecca, Clare, Anna, and their youngest, Andrew, born in 2023.
And just a year after Andrew’s birth, Rivers became a grandfather when Halle had her own child in 2024.
And having a massive roster of children wasn’t even unique for Rivers’ family. It was planned.
Both Rivers and his wife are one of nine children born to each of their own parents.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) on the sidelines during the game against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium on December 6, 2020. (Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports)
In 2019, before the birth of Anna, who gave the couple nine children, Tiffany told Women’s Wear Daily about Philip’s grandfather’s reaction to the news that they were having their ninth.
“This is the third generation of Phillip’s family, seven girls and two boys, so we were very excited about that. When we told his 91-year-old grandfather, he said, ‘You didn’t have to go to the doctor to find out. I could have told you, it’s family history.'”
Meanwhile, Halle, at 23, is older than a handful of Rivers’ new teammates with the 2025 Colts, including rookie quarterback Riley Leonard, rookie defensive end JT Tuimoloau and rookie running back DJ Giddens.
Rivers’ body has already endured rare adversity before making its unusually late return to football at age 44.
Rivers has already played through an injury that typically keeps players off the field for more than a year.
In the 2007 AFC Championship Game, against the historically dominant and undefeated New England Patriots, Rivers played only six days after suffering a torn ACL and meniscus in his right knee.
Rivers limped throughout the game for the San Diego Chargers, with his team down just nine points in a 21-12 battle.
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Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) before playing against the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Wild Card game at Bills Stadium on January 9, 2021. (Rich Barnes/USA TODAY Sports)
He underwent surgery after the match and made his return to the team in time for the start of the 2008 season.
In overcoming that injury, Rivers maintained a historic streak of 224 consecutive regular season starts.s from 2006 to 2020, making it the fifth-longest starting streak of any NFL player. He became the fourth NFL quarterback to reach 200 consecutive starts, joining Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning.
