SCOTT LINNETT / Union-Tribune
Chargers starting quarterback Philip Rivers, who underwent aggressive offseason rehab on his surgically repaired knee, chats on the sideline with third-string QB Charlie Whitehurst. |
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On Jan. 20, 2008, Philip Rivers became the undisputed leader of the Chargers. If there had been doubts before then, they ended on a day when global warming somehow missed Foxborough, Mass. The Kid became The Man in the New England chill.
The Chargers quarterback was unable to do enough to overcome the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. But few people knew he played without an anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Even fewer knew he had undergone arthroscopic surgery to remove loose cartilage in the joint the previous Monday.
Writers have compared what Tiger Woods did with a torn ACL in the U.S. Open to what some football players have gone through, playing through pain. As game as Tiger's effort was, he didn't have 300-pound men after him on every hole.
The comparison is ludicrous.
Face it. Rivers, the Chargers quarterback of now and the future, shouldn't have suited up. But because he could play through the pain, he did, and he hardly disgraced himself.
If a true NFL quarterback was born that day, then perhaps so was an entire football team. The Chargers, if they didn't know already, had found the person to lead them.
Nobody seems to understand exactly what makes a leader, but a quarterback without the respect of his teammates might as well lead a search for Atlantis. Rivers doesn't like to speculate on whether he's considered more of a leader now than he was on Jan. 19, but he will.
“It's hard to answer that, but yeah,” Rivers was saying yesterday, as he and a few veterans joined rookies on the team's second day of training camp. “Maybe it (the leadership level) didn't go up. I'm saying this humbly, but maybe it reaffirmed the confidence my teammates had in me. I have great respect for the guys in this locker room.
“That isn't why I played with the knee, to get praise, to have the guys say, 'Philip, you're a tough guy.' A lot of guys were playing tough out there; a lot of guys were playing in pain. I obviously was in discomfort, but what I did was not surreal.”
Maybe not, but Rivers lifted himself that day, as the text messages and e-mails he received from his teammates pointed out. Rivers likes to talk. But, after leading his side to eight straight wins – including two playoff victories – he probably can say anything he wants.
“The No. 1 goal is to lead,” he says. “I take it as my No. 1 responsibility. A lot of guys can throw and look pretty throwing it. Hopefully, I can do enough to help get us to the top. It takes more than one guy. It takes all of us.”
Rivers had surgery on that knee and what followed was some serious, rigorous rehab. And it worked.
“I can't tell any difference between my right and left knee right now,” he says.
Head coach Norv Turner can't believe what Rivers went through to get the knee ready.
“I've never been around anyone who put in more time and work after an injury,” Turner says. “I can't imagine doing what he did coming off surgery. He was in at 5:30, 6 in the morning, four days a week.
“Philip didn't just work on his knee. Once he was given the green light to work out, he worked to strengthen all his muscles. I really don't know how anybody could do more to get himself ready.”
Rivers simply calls it “a challenging offseason,” but he seems to have turned it into an incredible positive. There's no denying anymore that the Chargers are very good. Now it's a matter of them getting to the top branch of the tree.
Medicine has come so far, it's safe to say the rehab Woods is going through now will be different from what Rivers had to do. Maybe it used to be that if a golfer and football player tore a knee ligament, they'd go through a similar regimen. No longer.
“We worked it hard,” Rivers says. “James (trainer James Collins) said there would be a positive, specific plan. This is a quarterback ACL, he said, and whatever we did, I'm not as sore. It actually feels like I'm a little more explosive just dropping back from center than I was before.”
Philip Rivers has played a lot of football. He started more major college games than anyone in history while at North Carolina State. He's not one to sit comfortably, one of the reasons, including playoffs, he's 27-9 as an NFL starter.
“I learned a lot last year,” he says. “I learned how to deal with adversity. I had a smooth ride my first year (as a starter in 2006). And I made some bonehead plays.”
Rivers likes to “talk” to fans in the stands during games. Some may call it bonehead, too. I find it refreshing, and a reflection of who he really is.
“It's all in fun, but I think I'm going to leave the fans alone,” he says.
I can believe many things. I can see Rivers playing a week after surgery. I can see him stronger after rehab. But shutting him up on the sidelines (or anywhere)? Forget it.
Nick Canepa: (619) 293-1397; nick.canepa@uniontrib.com
