RISING RIVERS
Excellence, competitiveness of Bolts QB goes back years
IF YOU were lucky enough to call him your quarterback, if you were lucky enough to coach him, you are rooting long and hard for Philip Rivers to win that elusive Super Bowl, because it feels like an injustice to them all that he hasn’t.
“He is the leader,” former Jet Jerricho Cotchery told Serby Says by phone, “He’s the guy, when you look at him, you’re gonna see the troops right behind him. Because they know they’re being led on the right direction.”
Cotchery was Rivers’ go-to guy at North Carolina State in the early 2000s, caught 200 career passes and 21 touchdowns. He was asked why teammates felt compelled to follow Rivers.
“He cares,” Cotchery said. “He cares about winning. He cares about getting better. He cares about the team getting better. He cares about having his teammates get better.”
Rivers is a guy that has cared from the time his father was the head coach at Athens (Ala.) High.
“He was at every practice, he was around all the time,” Allen Creasy told Serby Says. “It was obvious when he was that age, that he saw things and he understood things that most children don’t understand. All the other kids are down there climbing on the goalpost, and he’s watching the offensive drills. ... And he was super-, super-competitive. He never wanted to lose at anything. He was always one that you wanted to do your best because he’s doing his best.”
Creasy, who retired three years ago after 16 years as Athens’ head coach, was the defensive coordinator for Rivers’ father Steve even before Philip played for them. With that sidearm throwing motion that would scare some college programs away.
“When he was young, that’s how he had to throw it,” Creasy said, “because the ball was too big for him to hold. He was out there throwing the ball around with the high school kids when he was 6, 7, 8 years old, and he couldn’t hold the ball, so he had to kind of sit it on his palm and push it. So that’s the only throwing motion I ever saw him have.”
Grant Lauderdale was Athens’ quarterback his senior year, when Rivers was a sophomore.
“I just assumed I was gonna lose my job ’cause I heard how great Philip was,” Lauderdale said. “Usually by halftime, I was out of the game and Philip was playing if we were up three or four touchdowns.” Athens was a powerhouse. “From a chemistry standpoint, Coach Rivers really just didn’t want to make a change
and disrupt things,” Creasy said. So young Rivers, just 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds or so at the time, mostly played outside linebacker. “But he would still come up and hit you,” Lauderdale said. As a junior, and in big moments as a senior, Rivers became the starting quarterback and free safety as well. And he was the punter. And he once ran back an onside kick for a touchdown. “You couldn’t throw the ball with him on defense without him being there when the ball got there,” Creasy said. “He had a great knack for knowing where the ball was gonna be. He looked kind of l i ke a baby giraffe running back there sometimes, but he always seemed to get there.” But hi s father was a quarterback. He wore No. 17 long before his son did. Young Rivers was born to play quarterback.
“He’s really good in the locker room,” Lauderdale said. “He had a way of connecting with people and makes them want to play well for him. He can influence people in the locker room, and that was probably his best attribute.”
Lauderdale is now a senior VP at ServisFirst Bank.
“I can’t tell you how much mileage I’ve gotten at cocktail parties,” Lauderdale said, “being able to say that Philip Rivers was my backup.”
Chase Jones was a receiver and linebacker at Athens.
“I remember one game we were tired, very tired, and I was tired trying to catch my breath,” Jones recalled. “We needed a stop when it was third-and-4.”
On their way to the defensive huddle, Rivers exhorted Jones: “You can’t be winded. Get ’em pumped up. We gotta stop ’em. We gotta stop ’em. It’s now or never.”
Jones added, “He would get me excited so I could get everyone else excited.”
There was this one occasion when Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville showed up to scout Rivers. “Our running game was working very well,” Creasy recalled. “Philip comes to the sideline to get the play and then go back and call it in the huddle. He came to the sideline and Coach Rivers asked him, ‘What do you think?’ And Philip said, ‘Let’s run it.’ At the end of the game we threw it five times with the coach from Auburn there to see him play. That never entered into Philip’s mind. It never ever was about him, it was always about the team.” Cotchery is now an assistant receivers coach with the Panthers. “Unbelievable teammate,” he said. “When you’re out in the locker room, he’s hanging out with the guys, he’s right in the thick of things, joking around, and doing whatever we’re doing at that particular time to enjoy that setting, to just have fun as a group.”
Even if that meant talking trash with his own defense.
“That was every day in practice,” Cotchery said. “I don’t know how he was before he got to N.C. State, but I knew we had a bunch of Florida guys on the team that talked all day long. He was already a natural competitor, so he wasn’t gonna let those guys get the best of him.”
Rivers completed 25 consecutive passes last Sunday against the Cardinals. He turns 37 on Dec. 8 and is playing 10 years younger. He quarterbacks a team that has a Super Bowl chance. No one would cherish it more.