Philip Rivers is on the Pro Football Hall of Fame ballot for a reason, and few people know why better than defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo. The two men have faced off a number of times throughout their NFL careers, but now they will share the same sideline as the Colts signed Rivers to their practice squad on Tuesday following Daniel Jones' season-ending Achilles injury.
The 44-year-old quarterback has played against the 59-year-old Anarumo a total of six times; five of those times were when Anarumo was the defensive backs coach for the Miami Dolphins and when Rivers was the quarterback for the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers. Just one meeting came when Anarumo was a defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals and, ironically, it was during the one year Rivers played for the Colts: 2020.
In that game, a 31-27 Colts win in Week 6, Rivers completed 29-of-44 passes for 371 yards and a touchdown, throwing one interception and taking one sack.
In the other five games, Rivers threw eight total touchdowns and threw for over 300 yards three times (he threw for 298 yards in the Chargers' loss to the Dolphins in Week 11 in 2013).
"He's on the Hall of Fame ballot, is he not? So, that says all you need to hear," Anarumo said on Tuesday. "But just a super, super competitive guy, can make all the throws. So yeah, he was more than a headache, I'll tell you that."
Rivers, in his career, played 17 years in the NFL with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers (2004-2019) and Colts (2020). Over 244 games (240 starts), Rivers completed 64.9 percent of his passes for 63,440 yards with 421 touchdowns. He's seventh in NFL history in passing yards and sixth in passing touchdowns; he is an eight-time Pro Bowler and threw for over 4,000 yards in 12 of his 15 seasons as a full-time starting quarterback.
