Any post-retirement recap of his career should begin with this fact, because it’s one of the most damn impressive things we’ve seen in the NFL in recent years.
Rivers had suffered the injury in a Divisional Round road win against Peyton Manning’s Indianapolis Colts, a game in which he threw three touchdown passes. He then had a mid-week arthroscopic procedure to remove half his meniscus before traveling to New England to face the still-undefeated Patriots. The Chargers were running on fumes, with LaDainian Tomlinson and Antonio Gates also dealing with significant injuries.