Philip Rivers: ‘I wouldn’t have traded it for anything’
Philip Rivers has never forgotten NC State, and the Pack has never lost its place in his heart. Logistics, however, have made it tough for the former Wolfpack quarterback to make it back to Raleigh.
When you spend your entire NFL career with the San Diego Chargers after graduating from NC State in 2004 and have a family of eight children, the challenge of sneaking in a trip across the country to your alma mater is understandable.
This year was different, though. Rivers’ children were on spring break, and the family was vacationing in Florida. The timing worked well with NCSU’s annual former players' reunion dinner that coincides with the Pack’s spring game weekend.
Rivers has long desired getting back for one of them. He could not pass up this opportunity.
“Although I haven’t been around very much, I’m always pulling for the Pack, and NC State will always be a special place for me and my family,” he said. “It’s great to come back and see what has changed and what still has looked the same. It brings back so many good memories.”
Walking into the Murphy Center, Rivers noticed that the building that was constructed while he was at NC State looks as new as it was then. He also noticed “that big indoor [practice facility] over there.”
He also has former teammates at NCSU who are working in the Murphy Center: safeties coach/co-special teams coordinator Clayton White and strength and conditioning coordinator Dantonio Burnette. Getting the chance to catch up with old friends like them is what Rivers cherished about his trip.
While the star signal-caller talked with the assembled media for a press conference Friday afternoon, the man responsible for bringing him to NC State in the first place sat outside the room in the lobby: former NCSU assistant football coach Joe Pate.
Pate recruited Rivers when Mike O’Cain was the head coach. Yet while Rivers was driving in the backseat of his family car on Thanksgiving weekend in 1999, he got the news over the radio that O’Cain had been fired.
He had already decided that he was going to NC State, but now his mind was racing: Does he try to convince Auburn to recruit him but not as a tight end? Ole Miss was also an option.
“Go to Ole Miss and have a very fair competition with Eli [Manning]?” Rivers jokingly asked, referring to the son of former Ole Miss legendary quarterback Archie Manning.
Pate’s message to Rivers was consistent: “Hang with us, see who we hire.”
The hire was FSU assistant head coach Chuck Amato, and during Amato’s first recruiting stop at Athens (Ala.) High in the office of Rivers’ father, who doubled as his football coach, Amato listened to Rivers explain his other options.
“I’ll never forget, he kind of looked at me and said, ‘Well, so is anybody else really in this? Are you coming?’” Rivers recalled. “I kind of thought to myself this is it.”
Pate convinced Rivers to enroll early, establishing a trend that has become more the norm with each passing year.
“I don’t think there was any chance I would have started that first game that year as a freshman if not for the spring,” Rivers added.
He is still glad that NC State kicked off to start the 2000 season against Arkansas State, his first contest in the red and white. He needed that moment to catch his breath.
The skies opened up that evening, unleashing a pouring rain as the Pack struggled to keep pace with Arkansas State before Rivers led his team on a late rally and eventual overtime win.
That game remains dear to Rivers. He called it the beginning of his “very special and blessed career” in football. He also remembers the Thursday night comeback win over Georgia Tech in overtime a few weeks later, and thrilling victories over Florida State and Virginia at home during his senior season.
Since leaving Raleigh, he has tried as much as he could to keep up to date on the Wolfpack. He noted that fourth-year head coach Dave Doeren, “seems to fit the mold in what an NC State guy is all about.”
All of the Rivers are Wolfpack fans, and one of his boys even gave him a “Go Wolfpack!” before Rivers left for the reunion.
He will occasionally run into NC State fans and alums in the San Diego area. He keeps in touch with his favorite target at NC State, wide receiver and fellow NFL veteran Jerricho Cotchery, as much as he can. He pleaded for the Chargers to draft Cotchery in 2004, and thus Rivers is not surprised as the success Cotchery has enjoyed in his professional career.
There are other former teammates, though, that Rivers is excited to trade stories about at the reunion, perhaps rekindling some old tales that he has forgotten over the course of time about an experience in his life that will forever be a part of him.
“I wouldn’t have traded it for anything,” Rivers said. “I am looking forward to all of the conversations with the guys.”