The Indianapolis Colts have dominated the headlines ahead of Week 15. Indianapolis signed veteran QB Philip Rivers out of retirement to replace Daniel Jones after his season-ending Achilles injury. The 44-year-old quarterback is set to start for the Colts during Week 15 and nobody is more excited about it than his high school players.
Rivers has been the head football coach at St. Michael Catholic in Alabama. Some of Rivers' high school players spoke with NFL.com this week about the excitement surrounding their coach's NFL return.
One student described the mad scramble that students made to their in-school computers as they waited to hear if Rivers would sign with the Colts.
“We were checking updates all day in school, going on Google, just typing in his name about every 10 minutes,” Tucker Tomlinson, a senior receiver for the St. Michael Catholic Cardinals, told NFL.com. “That was the worst part. Having to refresh all the news pages to see what we can find.”
Rivers worked out with the Colts on Monday night, leading to strong speculation heading into Tuesday that he would join the team. Then the news finally broke on Tuesday afternoon.
“When we finally saw it, we're like, ‘Oh my God, this is real,'” Tomlinson said by phone this week. “That's something I would never expect. … Reports like that come out all the time, you know, it's just crap. You see it, you're just like, that's funny. Let me joke with (his son) Gunner about it. This time seemed different, and it really came into fruition.”
Rivers' son Gunner is the starting quarterback for St. Michael Catholic, and one of the nation's top prospects.
He tried to keep his father's fate a secret, but his classmates could easily tell that something was up.
“He definitely tried to keep it pretty close to the chest,” Tomlinson said. “But he's got a tell. His face gets all red and he didn't know how to handle it. It was pretty funny.”
It will be fascinating to see how well Rivers can play against a tough Seahawks defense. His high school team will certainly be tuning in to watch their coach's impressive NFL return.
Colts at Seahawks kicks off at 4:25PM ET on Sunday.
