Phillip Rivers: ‘Come On, How Bad Would It Have Looked If I Had Won My Own QB Challenge..’
July 20, 2009 – 5:30 am by Michael Bean
San Diego Chargers quarterback Phillip Rivers is just about as excitable a guy as there is in the National Football League. Some consider his flamboyance on the field as disrespectful, annoying and cocky, but love him or hate him, he’s still one of the better signal callers in the league. He led the NFL in passer rating last year and played tremendously down the stretch to help the Chargers backdoor their way in to the playoffs last season. Rivers is ready to roll again in 2009 and is intent on finally putting it all together and guiding his team to a Super Bowl after several consecutive disappointing seasons. Rivers joined XX 1090 in San Diego to talk about his desire to get training camp started, how the improved injury status of the Chargers roster should pay dividends and of course, to comment on the video that surfaced recently of him getting schooled by a high schooler at Rivers’ own camp.
On the excitement level that he and his teammates have for this season after a number of interesting but ultimately disappointing seasons:
“Yeah I think so. You just look back at the 14-2 year and we get knocked out in the first round. We got a lot of guys that it was their very first playoff game. Then there’s all the hype that the Chargers are the most talented team and we are Super Bowl favorites. Again, it’s not an excuse, it’s just the facts. We all thank God we made a run to the AFC Championship Game then fall short. Then last year there’s even more hype and we start off slow and it looks like we were counted out. You know, there were countless articles that said we were done and every news station and you can’t really blame them. We were sitting at 4-8 and then we end up making a run. So we’ve had every scenario possible this last three years and I think now we’re kind of fed up with it and we said, look, we don’t need to talk about it anymore. Let’s go get it done. Also to the excitement, we didn’t do a full offseason. You see [Antonio] Gates out there running routes in May. You see Nick Hardwick out there making his calls in May. And there’s no telling the value that that has for the season and in the season. The fact that every guy, for the most part, will be ready to roll on Day 1 in training camp adds to it and we’re looking forward to having a great year.”
On the importance of getting off to a better start than they did last year:
(Video of Rivers being showed up by a camper after the jump)
It is, I think I remember telling you that these past two years that that’s something we’ve all talked about. We want to start fast, let’s start fast. Let’s get off to a better start. Let’s not – the 0-2, the 1-3. Let’s not do that. Let’s start fast. And we haven’t done it, so I’ll tell you again – that’s one of the things we want to focus on this year…But I don’t know why. Two years ago, we didn’t play very well early. Last year, we had two that went down to the buzzer. One on 4th down with no time on the clock. The other – I’m not blaming it on the call, but had it gone the other way, we win. So we very easily could have been 2-0 last year. Then we won our third game and our fourth game. So we could have been 4-0…It’s amazing how it can turn. Obviously those aren’t excuses, but it shows you the fine line between winning and losing and we were on the losing side for those first couple.”
On him losing recently to a high school kid at his camp in a quarterback skills challenge:
“I didn’t know it would be such a big hit really to be honest with you. But no, it was fun. It was a lot of fun. But come on, how bad would it have looked if I had won my own QB Challenge at my own camp against the high school kids. I mean, that would have been a very proud interview – yeah, it was good to come out and win this challenge. No, it was good. The kids did a great job, and my brother was one of the guys too. I’ve been talking to him saying, golly, if I had won I would have been all over the news. We’ve been laughing about that. So, I don’t know if you saw the clip but I went over the tire on every throw. The tires were about as high as my little boy. So you know, I’m used to throwing to big targets!”
Listen here to Rivers on XX 1090 in San Diego
Tags: NFL interviews, Phillip Rivers beaten by kid, San Diego Chargers, XX 1090
