Beyond the Gridiron: As Philip Rivers Returns to NFL, a High School Cheers its Coach

As Noah Moss and his teammates discovered this week, the only thing cooler than having a retired NFL quarterback as your high school football coach is ... having a current NFL quarterback as your coach.

At age 44, Philip Rivers is coming out of retirement after five years to help the injury-ravaged Colts try to make the playoffs, and nobody is cheering louder than his players at St. Michael Catholic School in Fairhope, Alabama. The Cardinals just need to figure out who will cut their football field this week.

"To see he's going back to the NFL, it's awesome," Moss, a senior running back, told me. "I'm praying for his safety and all those things, but I think he's prepared. He competes with us in the weight room, and he still spins it pretty good at practice. He's probably one of the most competitive people you'll ever meet."

Rivers has coached at St. Michael Catholic since 2021, and had committed to coach there before his 17th and (seemingly) final NFL season in 2020. The private school with an enrollment of about 350 students opened in 2016 and has recently become a football powerhouse, reaching the state semifinals in each of the past two years, going 12-2 in 2024 and 13-1 this season. 

The driving force? A coach whose passion for the sport spills over to his players.

"He might have the most love for the game I've ever seen in my life," St. Michael Catholic center Maddox Caldwell, who has signed with Southeastern Louisiana, told me. "I think it's why he's going back. He loves the game that much. He loves to micromanage, loves to have every single detail perfect. It's awesome to be around that, and it instills that in you to be better."

St. Michael Catholic center Maddox Caldwell says he's become a better player thanks to Coach Rivers' attention to detail. (St. Michael/Flying T Photography LLC)

Fairhope is just across the bay from Mobile, and even though Rivers has thrown for 421 touchdown passes and 63,440 yards in the NFL, making the Pro Bowl eight times along the way, at St. Michael Catholic he's just another employee. On the school website, he's listed right there with the school nurse and the driver's ed teacher, complete with yearbook photo and school email address. And yes, Coach Rivers actually does mow the football field.

The school's athletic director and defensive coordinator, Simon Cortopassi, estimated he had 200 emails on Tuesday from media outlets asking about Rivers, with local TV affiliates interviewing players. Over the past five years, Cortopassi said there were three other times Rivers contemplated a return with multiple teams, but Monday felt a little different.

"The past five years have been, quite frankly, unbelievable," Cortopassi told me. "He is one of the best not only football coaches and football minds, but one of the best people in this world. I've been lucky and blessed to work really close with him and learn a lot from him, talk through a ton of football situations. He's done an unbelievable job."

Cortopassi said that when Colts quarterback Daniel Jones went down with a season-ending Achilles injury on Sunday, it crossed his mind that he could lose his coach to a better job. When they talked Monday morning, Rivers said, "They're sending the plane down," with a big decision ahead about returning to the NFL after such a long absence. "If I get on it, the chances of me going are pretty high." 

By Monday night, he'd worked out for Colts coach Shane Steichen, who coached him in his final six seasons with the Chargers, and by Tuesday, Rivers had signed to the Indianapolis practice squad.

All along, Coach Rivers has taken an NFL approach to high school football. Caldwell said he keeps sheets on the high school officiating crews, just like an NFL team would, telling players each week of their tendencies, what penalties are more likely to get flagged. He knows the officials' names and doesn't have to pull the rulebook out of his back pocket to recite them during games.

"Before games, you'll see him out in his truck, sitting and just watching film, for hours," Caldwell said. "He watches so much film, and by the time we're in a Monday meeting for a Friday game, he already has an entire game plan, everything worked up. He watched so much film when he was in the NFL, and he's kept that rhythm as a coach as well. He just kept going."

Much has been made of the fact that Rivers and his wife, Tiffany, have 10 children and are even grandparents now. Their fourth-oldest child and oldest son, Gunner, is a junior at St. Michael Catholic and a coveted quarterback recruit. When a buzz grew in the halls at school Monday about Rivers returning to the NFL, the group chat of players sought confirmation from a reliable source, but Gunner kept coy until the news was official.

Gunner Rivers, a rising college QB recruit, kept a lid on his dad's NFL plans until the news was announced. (St. Michael/Flying T Photography LLC)

For Moss, this isn't his first close brush with NFL talent. His father, Jarvis, was a star defensive end at Florida and was a first-round pick of the Broncos in 2007. He started his NFL career three years after Rivers, faced him as a division rival and even in Moss' final NFL game — 14 years ago — but Rivers remembered Jarvis when Noah first introduced himself as a sophomore.

Former All-Pro edge rusher J.J. Watt tweeted this week that Rivers ran "the same offense" at St. Michael Catholic that he played in with the Colts. His players said Rivers would routinely use NFL clips to illustrate plays and how they should be blocked and how routes should be run. The complexity of the scheme has helped players in recruiting, with college coaches confident that players from St. Michael's can process a lot.

"It's cool to know we're running real plays. A lot of high schools just draw things up in the dirt, but it's beneficial for us guys that are going on to play at the next level," said Moss, who has signed with NC State, where Rivers played from 2000-03 and is still the school's all-time leading passer.

What's it like in practice every day, trying to coach a defense against an offense with a Hall of Fame-level mind calling out everything he sees?

"It's brutal," Cortopassi told me. "Not only is he the issue, but Gunner's one of the top-ranked quarterbacks in the nation. I'll tell Philip, 'This is cheating. It's a cheat code.' They think just alike. Gunner is unbelievable, has a super-high football IQ as well. Philip is just as smart defensively, in how fast he sees the game, sees what opponents do. He'll say, 'Simon, we've got to tweak this,' and how quick he's able to see it is unbelievable."

Another thing Rivers has brought from his playing days to his coaching tenure is his commitment to ... not swearing. Working five years exclusively with teenagers hasn't changed that in him, and his players enjoy hearing him get upset without saying anything you'd hear in even a PG-13 movie.

"He'll never say a cuss word. It's the funniest thing," Caldwell said. "I've heard every other word besides a cuss word come out of Coach Rivers' mouth. 'Jiminy Cricket' is one of his favorites. ‘Darnit.’ He'll get as close as you can without saying a cuss word. He says 'Stinking' a lot, and I didn't realize it, but I'm around him so much, all the sudden, I'm saying 'Stinking' in my daily life. My family's calling me out for it. 'Why are you saying 'Stinking' so much?' It's because Coach Rivers says 'Stinking' for everything."

Rivers doesn't teach at St. Michael Catholic, but he's on campus constantly, even in the offseason, coordinating workouts and recruiting with players, and mowing the field. He leaves for the Colts with all assurances that he'll be back at work when their season is over, just getting a few NFL shifts as a substitute where needed.

Rivers is 44 and hasn't played in five years, but he knows the Colts' offense and can still spin the football. (Getty Images)

Fairhope is situated geographically where it doesn't have a natural NFL loyalty — football there is Alabama-Auburn, first and foremost. The town is three hours from the Saints, farther from Jacksonville or Atlanta, so there might be a few Colts jerseys showing up in Fairhope in the coming weeks.

St. Michael Catholic players already have plans to watch Sunday when the Colts play at the Seahawks. If Rivers is playing, there are even bigger plans for Indianapolis' season finale at the Texans, with a group of seniors committed to making the seven-hour drive west to Houston to cheer for their coach in person.

Players and coaches mentioned Teddy Bridgewater, who coached at his high school in Miami and came out of retirement to be a backup with the Buccaneers this season. But Rivers has been retired long enough that he's a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, something that would get pushed back five years if he played in a game and reset his clock for enshrinement.

"It is one of the most unique things ever," Cortopassi said. "Our kids are extremely excited, and it's surreal to them. They're just like, 'Dang, that's Coach. We see him throwing at practice every day.' Let's see what it looks like on Sundays, on the biggest stage."

Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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