Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers was named the head football coach at St. Michael Catholic High School on Friday, the school announced.
Rivers, though, won't officially take over as head coach of the Fairhope, Alabama, school until he retires from the NFL. The quarterback, who is heading into his 17th season, signed a one-year, $25 million deal with the Colts in March.
"It's a special day for me and my family, really," Rivers said in a news conference, his voice breaking. "I know I'm going to get a little emotional. I had two childhood dreams. One was to play in the NFL, and I've been able to do that now going into my 17th season and I still love that. The other is to be a high school football coach as my dad did. ... How blessed am I to be able to live both of those out, one on the tail end and one in the beginning stages."
When the 38-year-old Rivers will decide to retire is up in the air. He said he is taking it one year at a time, even though the Colts hope he can play longer than the year he signed with them.
Rivers was an all-state quarterback for his father, Steve Rivers, at Athens (Ala.) High School before going to play at NC State. He has two sons, one going into sixth grade and another going into third grade, and seven daughters.
"My dad was my high school football coach, so I want to coach my boys and I want to coach young boys down the road. So I do know what's next when my playing time's over, so we did talk about it a little bit," he said, according to AL.com. "I think really where we settled in was: I still love to play. Certainly not coming off my best year, but in a year where I still know I can play at a high level, I did it in spurts. I just didn't do it consistently enough. And I love it, and shoot, it was one of those deals where we said, 'Well, if there's nothing else out there, then that'll be our answer.' We kind of said, 'Whatever God wants, so if there's nothing out there, I don't want to just try to hang on to play. If nothing's out there, shoot, we'll start coaching.'"
Rivers spent the first 16 years of his NFL career with the Chargers after being acquired by the franchise in a 2004 draft-day trade with the New York Giants for Eli Manning. The Chargers announced in February that they were not going to re-sign Rivers, who said in March that he had briefly thought about retiring until he had some talks with his family.
Rivers, who has started 224 straight games, has thrown for 59,271 yards and 397 touchdowns to go with eight Pro Bowl invitations in his career. He became the first player in league history to have five straight games with a passer rating of 120 in a single season in 2014.