It’s not April Fool’s but reports that 44-year-old Philip Rivers is returning to the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts are true. The father of 10 and a new grandfather — who was one of the elite quarterbacks in the game for 17 seasons — is headed back to the NFL.
The longtime quarterback, who retired from the league in 2021, signed with the Indianapolis Colts on Tuesday, Dec. 9 after a tryout one day earlier. Rivers will join the practice squad of the 8-5 team in the thick of the AFC South race.
With starter Daniel Jones tearing his Achilles on Dec. 7 and former starter Anthony Richardson already on injured reserve with a fractured orbital bone, rookie QB Riley Leonard was thrust into action and is now dealing with a knee injury.
Indianapolis Colts Bringing In 44-Year-Old Philip Rivers Out Of Retirement
So apparently, Colts brass couldn’t find another quarterback on the face of the earth to bring in and will bring in a guy who hasn’t played in the NFL in five years and is on his way to 50. What has Rivers been doing since he retired in 2020?
Coaching HS football. He just led St. Michael Catholic in Alabama to a 13-1 record and a region title. So he’s been staying close to the game and watching those kids get busy on the gridiron probably fuels his itch to return to the field.
Jeff Saturday Recalls Debacle In Indy, Fears The Same For Rivers
Unusual personnel and management moves aren’t unusual for this Colts regime.
ESPN analyst Jeff Saturday played center from 1999 to 2011 and when the Colts fired Frank Reich in 2022, owner Jim Irsay didn’t choose someone with an iota of NFL coaching experience, bringing Saturday out of the booth and onto the field as head coach after coaching three seasons at the high school level in Georgia. It was a disaster as Saturday went 1–7 leading the franchise and returned to ESPN at the end of the season.
Saturday has similar fears for Rivers if he’s thrown into the fire.
“… Never thrown to any of their receivers. I equate this to me coaching, right? I walked in, I didn’t know a soul. He’s going to walk in and not know a soul. It’s not that these receivers aren’t good … you don’t know what his third step looks like. All the things—people think it just comes together. That’s just not how the NFL works. There’s a reason we do OTAs. There’s a reason that people say, ‘We won that game in June.’ That’s no disrespect for Philip Rivers and can he do it, absolutely.”
“I don’t think people realize the violence on our field,” Saturday continued. “I think that’s the part I’m most concerned for Phil. … I would like a guy who has actually been in the building and sat in a meeting and thrown a ball to one of our guys.”
Cam Newton Calls Out Colts For Signing Philip Rivers and Ignoring Him
There’s been plenty of opinions surrounding the possibility of Rivers touching the field in 2025. The conversation has thrust several much younger former NFL quarterbacks into the social media mosh pit. Cam Newton and his fans are offended that he wasn’t considered a better option than 44-year-old Rivers.
Said Newton, the former NFL MVP, on his “4th and 1” Podcast:
”It’s almost like a slap to my face.”
One fan posted: “The colts called 44-year-old Phillip Rivers away from his GRANDKIDS in for a workout… meanwhile 36-year-old 6’5 245lbs Cam Newton phone ain’t ring at all. What we doing fam?”
The name Cam Newton incites great backlash from certain sectors of sports fans.
“Mans aint played a down in 5 years he eligible for the HOF lmao,” a fan commented.
“If Phillip Rivers getting signed & Cam Newton still not being on a team isn’t proof racism is alive and well IDK what is,” one netizen said.
“My literal thoughts when I saw they decided to go with freaking Phillip Rivers lmao!!,” another fan exclaimed.
“Bruh been hanging with his kids on the beach and y’all skip over a man who CONTINUES to train like he’s preparing for the draft but has real NFL experience. Smh the NFL is whack!!,” complained another fan.
This signing of Phillip Rivers has opened up a new can of worms about the NFL’s “old boys network.” This has to be some kind of stunt where they bring him into the locker room for inspiration, because if he thinks he’s going to hop off the coach and into a game against the 10-3 Seahawks this weekend and then one of the NFL’s most blood-thirsty defenses in the Houston Texans and HC DeMeco Ryan on Jan.4, he has another thing coming.
