Philip Rivers
- San Diego Chargers (2004 -present)
- 4x Pro Bowl selection (2006, 2009, 2010, 2011)
- Senior Bowl MVP (2004)
Philip Rivers ( born December 8, 1981 in Decatur, Alabama) is an American professional American football player. He plays quarterback for the San Diego Chargers in the National Football League ( NFL).
NFL Draft
After successfully Rivers played college football for the team at North Carolina State University, he was considered in the 2004 NFL Draft next to Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger as one of the top three quarterbacks. The first draft pick this year had the San Diego Chargers, who thus wanted to select Eli Manning. Manning was but already known in advance that he did not want to play in San Diego. Nevertheless, Eli Manning was drafted by the Chargers as the first player. Behind the scenes, however, a trade with the New York Giants was completed. The Giants selected Philip Rivers in the fourth position of the draft, and gave him and three other draft picks in exchange for Eli Manning from the Chargers.
This exchange on the day of the draft is still controversial among experts. The Chargers were the ertauschten draft picks pod judge other stars such as linebacker Shawne Merriman and kicker Nate Kaeding, and thus laid the foundation for a successful future. Rivers was also elected to the Pro Bowl in 2006. Eli Manning, however, played error-prone in his early years, and was nominated in 2008 for the Pro Bowl. In the season of 2007, he reached for it with the New York Giants to the Super Bowl. As the most successful first-round quarterback of the NFL Drafts 2004, however, can be viewed Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who had already won the Super Bowl in his second season.
Professional career
In his first season in 2004 Rivers came after protracted contract negotiations late to the team and was therefore rarely used. In addition Starting quarterback Drew Brees played the best season of his career to date, so that Rivers had little chance to oust him. Also 2005, Rivers had to be content with the role as a backup. Brees ' contract was not renewed after the 2005 season, instead he signed a lucrative contract with the New Orleans Saints. Thus Rivers became the starter, and despite initial doubts he could convince in his first full season in 2006. The Chargers reached, led by Rivers and running back LaDainian Tomlinson, with 14 wins and only two defeats, the best result of all NFL teams. In the Divisional play-offs, but they had to admit defeat to the New England Patriots. In 2007 Rivers with the Chargers reached the play-offs, and came to the finals of the American Football Conference (AFC ) in front, where they lost again against the Patriots. Rivers played despite a knee injury and had to undergo an operation soon after the game.
At the start of the 2008 season, the Chargers were among the top favorites to a Super Bowl victory, many experts were counting that Rivers would belong to the extended MVP candidate. Rivers ' season was excellent, with a quarterback rating of 105.5 and 34 touchdowns, he led the NFL in those categories. The season of Chargers, however, was not nearly as successful and the team from San Diego moved to a last-minute victory over the Denver Broncos in the play-offs, where they were only the Indianapolis Colts defeat impressive, but in the Divisional Round they failed later in Super Bowl winners, the Pittsburgh Steelers, 25-34
In 2009, we counted the team from Southern California to Favorites and as in 2008 they launched relatively weak in the season, two wins were against three losses, but the Chargers have won all of their remaining eleven games and closed the season with a 13-3 Record from. Rivers was to be found at the top again in the statistics and threw 29 touchdowns with only nine interceptions, and posted again an excellent rating of 104.4.
The long winning streak, the Chargers reached the Divisional Round of automatically play-offs, where they lost narrowly Jets against the New York 14-17. Rivers threw namely erlief each a touchdown, but he also underwent two critical interceptions.
On November 2, 2012, the ninth round of the 2012 season he scored in the victory against the Kansas City Chiefs ( 31:13 ) 18 successful passes in 20 attempts. Only five other players were able to successfully play at least 90% at least 20 attempts. Kurt Warner in 2009 ( 92.3 %), Vinny Testaverde 1993 ( 91.3 %), Ken Anderson, 1974 ( 90.9 %), Lynn Dickey, 1981 ( 90.5 %) and Steve Young in 1991 ( 90.0 %).
Rivers was elected in his career so far ( as of 2011) four times in the Pro Bowl.