Caitlin Clark Reacts to Philip Rivers’ Surprise NFL Comeback Buzz
The city of Indianapolis has had a remarkable 2025 when it comes to their respective sports teams.
The first example of this is with the Indiana Pacers, who made an improbable run all the way to the 2025 NBA Finals before coming up just short of a championship against the Oklahoma City Thunder. They lost in seven games, battling to the bitter end even after star guard Tyrese Haliburton suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the first quarter of that contest.
Then the Indiana Fever followed this up with a similar story. Despite star guard Caitlin Clark missing most of the season with an injury, Indiana rallied all the way to a winner-take-all Game 5 of the WNBA Semifinals, where they came up just short against the Las Vegas Aces, who went on to win the league championship.
But arguably the biggest sports story in Indianapolis this year is the 44-year-old quarterback Philip Rivers coming out of retirement to play for the Colts. This has been the biggest sports story in recent months, given that Rivers hadn't played in an NFL game since January of 2021.
While Rivers lost all three starts, he still performed pretty well. And his stats can't convey just how impressive this accomplishment was.
Caitlin Clark Gets Candid About Philip Rivers’ Viral NFL Story
Caitlin Clark was the guest on a December 31 episode of the New Heights podcast with Travis and Jason Kelce when the topic of Philip Rivers came up. The trio was discussing why Clark was wearing No. 17 during the Team USA training camp earlier this month, when Jason Kelce asked, "So [wearing No. 17] was not in honor of Philip Rivers?"
"It's not, but how about that!?" Clark said with a laugh. "Is that not insane?"
She then added, "You've got to give him a lot of credit. And he was pretty good! I was worried he was gonna pop an Achilles."
"You don't got to worry about ole Philip Rivers, man. That guy is tough as nails!" Travis Kelce said.
"It was crazy! I mean, when I first saw that online, I was like, 'Oh, that's gotta be fake news.' Because there's so much fake news out there these days. I was like, 'What?' And they should have won the first game they played in at Seattle. They made the kick, the long field goal. I turned the game off, actually, because I was watching a game. I was like, 'Oh, that's great. He won. Like, cool.' How what do you know, I checked the box score on the ESPN app and was like, 'Oh, that's a heartbreaker. That's so sad," Clark continued.
Caitlin Clark showing love to Philip Rivers! pic.twitter.com/KuAFP0Ypcq
— Grant Young (@GrvntYoung) December 31, 2025
Indiana sports fans still have something to look forward to, as the Indiana Hoosiers' football team is ranked No. 1 in the country and could win a national championship. It has been a thrilling 12 months of sports for this state.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the Indiana Fever and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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