Philip Rivers’ 2020 quote on Tom Brady resurfaces and ages terribly as he inches toward unexpected NFL comeback

Philip Rivers is back in the NFL conversation, a twist almost no one imagined as the 2025 season reached its final stretch. The longtime Chargers star reunited with the Colts this week after signing to their practice squad, and now he stands only a step away from landing on the active roster for Week 15 against the Seahawks.

The buzz around his return feels surreal, especially because Rivers himself once brushed off the idea of sticking around long enough to chase the longevity records of the league’s ageless icons.That moment came in 2020, when he first arrived in Indianapolis. He was 39 then, fresh off a long run with the Chargers, and reporters pushed him about how long he planned to keep playing. He laughed, shook his head and answered with a line that would age in ways no one saw coming.

“I’m not going to get carried away. I don’t think you’ll see me in the Tom Brady range.” Today, Rivers is 44. Brady retired at 45. Suddenly, those words echo with new irony.

Old Tom Brady line comes back to haunt Philip Rivers just as he prepares for a shocking 2025 NFL appearance

What makes this comeback even more compelling is the full picture Rivers offered at that 2020 press conference. Courtesy of Colts.com, he said, “If I feel like I feel right now next year, then I'll be excited to keep going. Again, depending on how the team feels about that and etc.

So, I don't know, I don't have a number on it. Like I said, I want to coach my son, my oldest son. I have two boys that are 12 and eight (years old). He'll be a sixth grader, so we have a little bit of time but that is important to me to coach him in high school.

So, if that gives you a little idea.

“I'm not going to get carried away. I don't think you'll see me in the Tom Brady range. But I am excited and feel like I can still help a football team go win a championship.”Since stepping away in 2021, Rivers has lived that plan, coaching his children and staying connected to football in his own corner of Alabama. Yet the competitive fire never left. JJ Watt recently revealed that Rivers ran an offense mirroring the Colts’ system for a high school team, and that he and coach Shane Steichen stayed in touch.The Colts explored a reunion in 2021, but this time the door swung fully open. If Rivers takes a snap on Sunday, he will join Brady, Vinny Testaverde, Steve DeBerg and Warren Moon as the only quarterbacks to start a game at 44 or older. It would be one more unexpected chapter in a career full of them, and maybe a reminder to Brady not to get any ideas.Also Read: Shedeur Sanders finally clears the air on viral “thong photo” as brother Shilo demands the real truth