That competitive nature that is obvious to anyone who's ever seen him play football, is not characteristic of Philip Rivers the player, but of Philip Rivers the person. During the spring of his sophomore year, the strength and conditioning staff decided to have an early morning competition before school let out for the summer. The offense would go against the defense in several matchups - tug-of-war, keg tossing, sumo wrestling, and a relay to finish off the festivities. The whole team was pretty competitive, but Rivers took it to a whole new level. He spent the whole night before developing strategies, figuring out what personnel should be entered in each event. While everyone else was laughing and cutting up, when the offense would lose an event, his face bore a look of utter disgust. The competition came down to the 4x100 relay. Rivers ran through the infield, screaming at the top of his lungs as his offensive team was defeated.
"He's one of the most competitive guys I've ever met," said Dantonio Burnette, who lined up across from Rivers at linebacker for three years. "Sometimes Phil would take a lick and you could tell that he was hurting real bad, but he'd get up and shake it off. He's not only one of the toughest quarterbacks I've ever seen, he's one of the toughest players I've ever seen. I've seen him take a lot of shots, especially his freshman year, but he'll never lay on the turf."
"Who woulda thought...?"
Rivers' love for the game of football has been well documented. Since he was a little boy, he stood on the sidelines of his dad's high school games, his small face finding a spot between elbows to listen in on the play calls. At halftime, he would stand up with his imaginary baton and direct the high school band. Young Rivers even asked his mother Joan once if when he grew up, he would be able to play football AND direct the band at halftime.
He couldn't wait for the day when he would play for his dad. "After my last high school game, when we lost in the third game of the playoffs, I remember not wanting to leave the lockerroom. We just sat in there bawling our heads off. It was the last time I would ever play for him. We had waited for it and waited for it since I was five and then it was over. And then who would have thought that this would be so good too."
Yes, who woulda thought...?
Now, most of Rivers' Friday nights are spent with his own team, but every once in a while, the schedules don't conflict and he's able to stand in his dad's huddles once again, this time towering over most of the players. He's just as excited when Wakefield High School is listed in the local newspaper's regional rankings as he is when the Pack is listed in the national ones. He's signed responses to fans that write into his website, "Go Wakefield!"
In addition to his love for local high school football, Rivers knows everything there is to know about the college game. He pours over media guides and remembers football facts with the retention rate of a rocket scientist. After countless interviews and television experiences, he still gets excited about ESPN Gameday and still maintains a sense of respect for other college players. It's almost as if he doesn't really realize that he is at their same level or beyond.
A story about Philip Rivers would not be accurate or complete without talking about his family, which he feels is the foundation for any success he has enjoyed. When he signed with NC State, his parents, Steve and Joan, made the decision to leave Alabama to come to North Carolina, bringing his brother Stephen, now 11, and sister Anna, now five. After games, his family would wait patiently outside the interview room, as he has always been the first guy in and the last guy out of the postgame press conferences.
It's a joy to see him greet his family after games and immediately begin discussing every minute detail with his dad. Now Stephen is the face at the elbows, listening and absorbing everything there is to know. (Stephen is already two inches taller than Philip was at his age and his big brother swears he can throw a football 30 yards).
"It's crazy when our family gets together," Rivers continued. "We're all talking 100 miles an hour." He added that it gets so loud and crazy when the Rivers' clan talks about the sport they love so much, no one can get a word in edgewise. "The other night, we were going on and on and my little sister, Anna, couldn't get my attention. Finally, she just yelled out, 'Hey, Cheese!' It was so funny it got all of our attention."
After one game during his freshman year, a beautiful, dark-haired girl waited with the family. Rivers introduced her as his girlfriend, Tiffany Goodwin. The two weren't only high school sweethearts, they were junior high sweethearts. Rivers told me later that when he was just a little boy, he pointed Tiffany out to his mother at a ball game and said, "See her? That's a good girl."
Who woulda thought that "good girl" would end up being his wife so many years later? That spring, he not only asked Tiffany for her hand in marriage, but he also asked her father and one other person - his head coach.
That will always be one of my favorite memories of Philip," laughed Amato. "I always ask him what he would have done if I had said no! But it just shows the type of person he is that he respected his commitment to his team enough to ask me."
It's hard to imagine Philip without Tiffany now. Like his parents, she's not interested in being in the spotlight with her husband, but is content to support him behind the scenes. It's not always easy, between class and weights and film and practice and games, she's spent a lot of time without him, hundreds of miles away from her family and friends in Alabama. But not once have I ever heard her complain. Instead, she talks about how lucky she is to have Philip's family here and how wonderful they are to her. She opens her warm, cozy home to Philip's teammates and friends, even to an occasional television crew or two.
The young couple welcomed Halle into the world on July 6, 2002, with the same aplomb with which he's faced so many other challenges. "I guess I was prepped a little bit with my little sister, but I wasn't ever worried about being a father, just excited." Rivers has frequently been asked whether marriage and fatherhood have made it difficult to handle his other responsibilities. He's always replied with hesitation that his wife and daughter have only enhanced the experience of playing college football. Since Halle's birth he might spend a little less time playing video games and he might show up for press conferences with stains from small fingers on his sleeve, but the responsibilities of fatherhood have not dampened his excitement.
Halle is a good combination of her parents, but she definitely exhibits her father's tenacity. When she was learning to crawl, for some reason she could only master going backwards. Tiffany recognized the frustration and determination of her young daughter when she saw her intended destination getting further away instead of closer. She's seen those same characteristics and that never-give-up attitude from her husband since the day she met him.
Today, Halle will be at midfield with her mama, her grandparents and aunt and uncle as her father enters the field for his last home game. When she gets older, she probably won't remember anything about when her daddy played football for the Wolfpack, but his memories are so special, I'm sure he'll share them with her.
"It's sad, but it's happy at the same time," said Rivers about the prospect of his last home game. "There are so many things that I'll miss, mostly my teammates. The football part has been great, but it's the rides on the bus, the jokes in the lockerroom, the talks in the dining hall, the times in practice when we get on each other - all of those little things that I'll miss so much."
"Being a teammate is something that Phil cherishes a whole lot," Burnette continued. "He takes that relationship very seriously. When Coach Amato came in, the transition was kinda tough on a lot of the guys, but Phil made it easier. I mean, he beat out my best friend for the quarterback position, but you can't find it in you to be mad or jealous at Philip. When you see his level of commitment to his team and his friends and his family, you really see the kind of person he is."
""Who woulda thought...?"
Regardless of the outcome of today's game, this group of Seniors is one of the best ever!
Thank you for putting it all out there every Saturday!
