Vet Rivers has spring in his step
NFL
PHILIP RIVERS has told his young Los Angeles Chargers team-mates to take their shot at the
Super Bowl – because it may never come again.
The 37-year-old quarterback has spent his entire 15-year career as a one-club man.
But despite reaching the playoffs six times, only once, in 2007, has he made it as far as the semi-finals.
That campaign 11 years ago ended in defeat at the hands of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots and Rivers is only too well aware that time is running out for him to reach the biggest game of all.
He said: “When you’re younger you think this is it; you get a shot every year.
“Then when you go once in the last nine or 10 years, you realise how fleeting it is and how hard it is to get in.
“I’m just excited. Excited about the opportunity. It’s like back to the high school playoffs. Somebody’s moving on and somebody’s not.
“Once you understand the reality, what’s at stake and all that, then you move that ahead. You go cut it loose for three hours and see what happens.”
The Chargers travel 3,000 miles east tonight to face the Baltimore Ravens as the NFL starts its knockout phase.
They will have to win on each of the next three weekends to qualify for next month’s Super Bowl and Rivers knows it will take a certain amount of guts to fulfil the dream.
While Rivers can see the end of his career, opposite number tonight, Lamar Jackson, will become the youngest quarterback to start a playoff game in NFL history.
Jackson celebrates his 22nd birthday tomorrow.