Philip Rivers’s High School Team Had Priceless Reaction to News of Colts Start

Kristen Wong | 7 Hours Ago

Colts quarterback Philip Rivers is set to start in Sunday's game against the Seahawks, and his high school football team can't believe it. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

When Philip Rivers takes the field for his first NFL start in nearly five years, the Colts quarterback will no doubt face his share of scrutiny from the naysayers, but he'll also receive a hero's farewell from his high school football team.

The 44-year-old Rivers is set to complete his comeback to the NFL on Sunday when he starts under center against the Seahawks, and his high school football players are cheering him all along the way. Prior to his unexpected return to the pros, Rivers coached at St. Michael Catholic in Fairhope, Ala., joining the Cardinals' program back in 2021 when he first retired.

Fast forward four years, and his high school football team couldn't be more excited—and stunned—for Rivers.

"When we finally saw it, we're like, 'Oh my God, this is real,'" Tucker Tomlinson, a senior receiver for the Cardinals, said of Rivers getting a workout in Indianapolis earlier this week. "That's something I would never expect. … Reports like that come out all the time, you know, it's just crap. You see it, you're just like, that's funny. Let me joke with (his son) Gunner about it. This time seemed different, and it really came into fruition."

Apparently, Rivers's son Gunner, who's quarterback of St. Michael Catholic's football team, was trying to keep his father's NFL return under wraps but didn't do a very good job of keeping the secret. The team will be hosting a special watch party to see Rivers in action in the Colts-Seahawks game.

Whether Rivers fails spectacularly or exceeds expectations on Sunday remains to be seen. But at least he won't have any regrets.

"He just said, 'I'm going for it,'" the high school's co-athletics director Simon Cortopassi said of Rivers's text to him before joining the Colts. "He was like, 'There's only one way to find out if you can do it, and that's to try it.'"

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