Potential future Hall of Fame quarterback Philip Rivers has already changed career paths once, signing with the Indianapolis Colts after a tremendous 16-year career in Southern California with the Chargers.
Rivers, 38, has now lined up his first post-NFL job. The Pro Bowl signal caller held a press conference from Alabama on Friday announcing that he will become the head coach of the St. Michael Catholic High School football team once he retires from the league.
“It’s a special day for me and my family really,” Rivers said, via AL.com. “I will probably get a little emotional. I had two childhood dreams. One was to play in the NFL, and I’m now going into my 17th season. The other was to be a high school football coach as my dad was. How blessed am I to be able to live both of those out!”
After signing a one-year, $25 million deal with Indianapolis, it became clear that Rivers sees the end of his career in the not-so-distant future. For the former No. 4 overall pick, it’s all about following in his father’s footsteps and teaching his children the game of football.
“My dad was my high school football coach, so I want to coach my boys and I want to coach young boys down the road, so I do know what’s next when my playing time’s over, so we did talk about it a little bit,” he said. “I think really where we settled in was: I still love to play. Certainly not coming off my best year, but in a year where I still know I can play at a high level. I did it in spurts. I just didn’t do it consistently enough. And I love it, and, shoot, it was one of those deals where we said, ‘Well, if there’s nothing else out there, then that’ll be our answer.’ We kind of said, ‘Whatever God wants, so if there’s nothing out there, I don’t want to just try to hang on to play. If nothing’s out there, shoot, we’ll start coaching.’”
It is rather interesting in that Rivers seemed to have interest as an analyst following his playing days. In fact, some major networks were looking at a potential member of their broadcast booth for NFL games.
Alas, he decided another career path. Good for Mr. Rivers and his family.