How Philip Rivers' HS Team Reacted to Coach Ending Retirement to Sign Colts Contract

Quarterback Philip Rivers has ended his five-year retirement to sign a contract with the Indianapolis Colts, and the 44-year-old is in line to start on Sunday at the Seattle Seahawks.

Rivers is the current head coach for St. Michael Catholic in Fairhope, Alabama since 2021, the year after he retired. Naturally, Rivers' temporary return to the league has his players happy and excited, per comments made to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

"When we finally saw it, we're like, 'Oh my God, this is real,'" senior wide receiver Tucker Tomlinson told Rapoport by phone. "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."

This is happening after Daniel Jones sadly suffered a season-ending torn Achilles last Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Anthony Richardson (orbital fracture) is also out.

The Colts have rookie Riley Leonard on the roster, but Indianapolis is opting to give QB1 duties to Rivers, who played the 2020 season in town after a 16-year career with the San Diego and Los Angeles Chargers. Rivers' accolades include eight Pro Bowls, 421 touchdown passes and 63,440 passing yards.

Indianapolis has a new coach now in Shane Steichen (Rivers' coach then was Frank Reich), but Rivers has great familiarity with the scheme.

"We literally run the exact same scheme as the Colts," Tomlinson told Rapoport. "We have these teach tapes -- how to run routes in specific ways -- and they're just from Colts games in previous years."

Understandably, this has gotten great attention at St. Michael Catholic, per co-athletics director Simon Cortopassi.

"Combining phone calls, texts, emails, we've probably gotten 200-300 messages from media," Cortopassi said. "It's been crazy. But for all of us, it's going to be awesome to watch."

Rivers, of course, has been around football quite a bit even after retirement given his job, but he's stayed loose as well while practicing with one of his sons, Gunner.

"We have individual drills to start practice and we really don't have many QBs on our roster except for Gunner," Tomlinson told Rapoport. "So you'll see [Rivers and his son] over there and they're both doing footwork drills and throwing back and forth. He was getting after it for sure. Obviously, he's got a field in his house with facilities, too."

In the end, Rivers wanted to give this a shot.

"He just said, 'I'm going for it,'" Cortopassi said regarding Rivers' comments to him when he made the decision to return. "He was like, 'There's only one way to find out if you can do it, and that's to try it.'"

Now Tomlinson, his teammates and parents will be watching Rivers on Sunday from a local Mexican restaurant rented out to watch the game. Kickoff against the 10-3 Seattle Seahawks is set for 4:25 p.m. ET.