rivers.jpg
Getty Images

On Wednesday, the Indianapolis Colts officially announced that they had signed 44-year-old quarterback Philip Rivers to their practice squad. The Colts are exhausting all options to keep their season alive with all quarterbacks currently battling injuries. Daniel Jones tore his Achilles on Sunday, Anthony Richardson has been on injured reserve since Week 7, and Riley Leonard suffered a knee injury when he stepped in for Jones on Sunday.

Not only is Rivers potentially taking Jones' job, but he's also taking his jersey number. According to Mike Chappell of FOX59, Rivers will get to wear his No. 17 with Jones going on injured reserve. NFL Media reports that this has already been approved. 

"The league approved it as it does not present a competitive issue as one player will be wearing that number," an NFL spokesperson said.

Rivers wore No. 17 at Athens High School in Alabama, during his college career at NC State, during his 16 NFL seasons with the Chargers and in his one season with the Colts back in 2020. 

Rivers has been retired for almost 1,800 days. In his last NFL season, the eight-time Pro Bowler threw for 4,169 yards, 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while the Colts went 11-5 and made the playoffs. He is risking hitting the reset button on his Pro Football Hall of Fame candidacy to save the Colts this year.

If Rivers does end up starting a game, he will become the fifth quarterback to start an NFL game at age 44 or older, joining Tom Brady, Vinny Testaverde, Warren Moon and Steve DeBerg. He is a father to 10 children, is now a grandfather, and is older than his new coach in Shane Steichen. Rivers has already put together quite the career for himself, but he's not done yet. The former No. 4 overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft is 134-106 as a starter, and ranks seventh all-time in passing yards (63,440) and sixth in touchdown passes (421).