The astonishing NFL comeback of Philip Rivers to the Indianapolis Colts five years after taking his last snap in the league has inspired many. And in the case of Hall of Fame quarterback and former ESPN analyst Steve Young, it has him thinking about what might be possible for him.
Young is one of the all-time elite quarterbacks with two MVP awards, three Super Bowl victories, and seven Pro Bowls. He retired in 1999 after suffering multiple concussions and then had a long, successful career at ESPN as one of their top NFL analysts.
But after watching Rivers make a comeback, the former San Francisco 49ers star wonders what might be possible if he were ever able to take to the gridiron once again.
In quotes given to the San Francisco Chronicle, Steve Young said that he believes he could still take a few snaps in an NFL game today, even at the age of 64 and having not played in the NFL this millennium.
“The one thing I will tell you, as a quarterback, I really do believe, if you could somehow do the Benjamin Button thing and just somehow go back and play, one of the things that would be like riding a bike is sitting in the pocket and reading defenses,” Young said on KNBR. “That’s not going to go away, and it didn’t for Philip. You could see that he could do that.”
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“I absolutely feel confident that I could take the snap, run the screen game, throw the ball in the flat, maybe throw a slant,” Young told the Chronicle. “… It’s not like, ‘Put on the pads and go play.’ Still, if it was ‘Hunger Games’? If they said, you had to do this or die? Yeah, you could pull off something.”
Rivers didn’t set the world alight against the Seattle Seahawks in his first game in five years. However, he didn’t embarrass himself either. While his passes lacked the zip of pretty much every quarterback this side of Chad Pennington, he was still able to keep the Colts in the game on the road against one of the NFL’s best teams. He finished 18/27 for 120 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.
And as Steve Young explains, while the physical tools may wain, the confidence of someone who is one of the best to ever do their chosen profession does not.
“It allows all of us to kind of say even more, ‘Could I go out there for five plays? Could I go out there and run the screen game?’” Young told the Chronicle. “Because you got to remember, all of us, we were the best in the world at something. And then we were out, and we’re not the best at anything else. So you kind of want to keep doing what you were best in the world at.”
At least Steve Young is realistic that there would be certain restrictions to what he would be capable of doing given his advanced age. However, given the way the quarterback position is played in 2025 and the extent to which officials go to protect them, who is to say that he couldn’t throw a few passes in an NFL game today. There’s really only one way to find out and that’s if Rivers goes down in the next two weeks and Shane Steichen gives him a call. Of course, he might have some fierce competition from other quarterbacks in the television industry.
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