The Reporter (Lansdale, PA)

Rivers, Brees look back fondly on partnershi­p

Two still friends after all these years

- By Greg Beacham

Philip Rivers and Drew Brees could have an epic sports rivalry, if only they didn’t like and respect each other so much.

The ingredient­s are there: Brees was the San Diego Chargers’ starting quarterbac­k when they acquired the No. 4 overall pick Rivers in a draftday trade in 2004. Rivers spent two full seasons behind Brees in a potentiall­y combustibl­e partnershi­p before Brees inevitably left for the New Orleans Saints.

Since their breakup, they’ve become two of the most prolific and most durable quarterbac­ks in NFL history. The 39-year-old Brees enters the season third on the league’s career passing list with 70,445 yards, while the 36-year-old Rivers is ninth with 50,348. Rivers has started all 201 of the Chargers’ games after taking over in 2006, while Brees has started 202 of the Saints’ 204 games in that span, including the Super Bowl in which he won a ring and an MVP award.

They could be rivals with a weird start to parallel careers. Instead, they’re enduring friends who occasional­ly get their sons’ flag football teams together for a game during the offseason in San Diego, where they both kept their homes.

When they got together again this week for two days of joint practices between the Saints and the Chargers in Orange County, they picked up right where they left off. They also reflected on that strange twoyear stretch of their careers when two of the best quarterbac­ks of their generation shared the same locker room.

“It was a tough set of circumstan­ces, because they drafted him in 2004 to basically take my job, right?” Brees said. “So I think everyone always tried to kind of pit us against each other. They couldn’t understand how we could be friends or good teammates for one another when we were in the quarterbac­k room, having that type of competitio­n. But we were.” And they still are. “In those first two years, I enjoyed working with him and competing,” Rivers said. “It worked out well for him. Shoot, he’s had one heck of a run in New Orleans and won a championsh­ip. I’ve been able to have some longevity here with the Chargers. It is unique. Drew and I have always kept in touch. I have always pulled for him from afar.”

San Diego’s incredible depth chart during the 2004 season also included Doug Flutie, and the young quarterbac­ks both gained insight from the veteran while learning from each other. Rivers still praises Brees’ exemplary gameweek preparatio­ns, while Brees believes Rivers motivated him to another level of excellence.

“From the moment I was around Philip, you realized he was going to be a very good player, and he was going to be around for a long time,” Brees said. “I like to think that for those two years, we brought out the best in each other. It was a great learning experience for both of us. I think we both got a lot better as a result of it. But from the very beginning, you knew that he’s got a mind for this game. He’s a student of the game. He’s highly competitiv­e, and just makes plays. Look at the length of time that he’s been able to do it, in one place with a lot of different faces around him over the years.”

They’ve both still got plenty more to do as well. They’re still the unquestion­ed starters on two teams with realistic playoff hopes, and neither appears to be close to retirement.

Brees agreed to a twoyear contract extension in March after saying he’ll stay with the Saints “as long as they’ll have me.” He is likely to leap past Brett Favre (71,838) and then Peyton Manning (71,940) this season to become the top passer in league history, but he’s more interested in building on last season, when the Saints were one missed tackle away from reaching the NFC championsh­ip game.

Rivers is coming off an outstandin­g year at the controls of the Chargers’ prolific offense, and he has said he plans to play at least another handful of seasons. He will continue his threeman surge up the career passing charts with fellow 2004 draftees Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisbe­rger, but Rivers is more hopeful about extending the good feelings from last season’s finish, when the Chargers looked like one of the NFL’s best teams while winning nine of their final 12 games.

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