Philip Rivers has been coaching the Colts offense for one of his 10 children’s high school team

The potential of a Philip Rivers NFL comeback is one of the best stories in football in a long time. Rivers signed to with the Colts practice squad on Tuesday, and remarkably there’s a very real chance he could start on Sunday against the Seahawks in an effort to save Indianapolis’ season.

One fascinating wrinkle emerged on Tuesday that actually pieces this all together in a fascinating way: Rivers knows the offense from coaching his son’s high school team.

Gunnar Rivers is one of Philip’s 10 children, and he’s been coaching St. Michael Catholic High School (Alabama) since 2021. It just so happens he modeled his high school offense after Steichen’s scheme with the Colts, which runs a West Coast offense variant cultivated for … Philip Rivers, when Steichen took over as offensive coordinator for the Chargers in 2019.

The Rivers/Steichen union has existed for longer than people realize, with Steichen being his QB coach from 2016-19, and an offensive quality control coach before that. So this is all just coming full circle as both Rivers and Steichen became coaches at the same time, albeit Rivers was at high school and Steichen was in the NFL.

At least on paper this looks like it could actually work. Of course, this is still a man who hasn’t taken a hit in the NFL in five years, there’s no way he’ll take a hit in practice, and he’s being thrown to the wolves with the Seahawks in the first week.

Either way, it’s going to be fun.