Chargers may have the juice for Super Bowl run

Updated 9/27/2006 6:13 PM ET
By Jim Corbett, USA TODAY

SAN DIEGO — LaDainian Tomlinson is the authority when it comes to
Chargers quarterbacks.

Arguably the game's best all-around running back, Tomlinson has been the
offensive constant in San Diego's rise from the Ryan Leaf debacle to a
hungry team that believes it is poised to make a championship run.

Tomlinson was drafted in 2001, just months after the Chargers gave up on
Leaf, the second overall pick of the 1998 draft and a man who came to
define quintessential first-round bust.

Tomlinson has also been part of and witness to two of the biggest
blockbuster deals involving quarterbacks in recent NFL history.

The Chargers traded the chance to select Michael Vick with the first
overall pick in the 2001 draft, opting for Tomlinson as the first brick
in their rebuilding effort with the fifth overall selection. The former
Texas Christian University star joined Eric Dickerson and Eddie George
in 2005 as the only running backs in league history to rush for 1,200
yards in each of their first five seasons.

Tomlinson became close to quarterback Drew Brees, whom San Diego
selected after L.T. in the 2001 draft. Brees took the quarterbacking
reins from Doug Flutie after the club's 5-11 2001 campaign and
ultimately led the Chargers to the playoffs in 2004.

But Brees was cast adrift when he suffered a career-threatening injury
to his throwing shoulder in the 2005 regular-season finale. Despite the
potential severity of the injury, the Saints signed him for six years
and $60 million in March.

Tomlinson wanted Brees back in 2005. But he also knew the meter was
running on Philip Rivers, who signed a six-year contract worth
approximately $40 million after holding out for most of training camp as
a rookie. The Chargers drafted Rivers fourth overall in 2004 after
swapping the top pick and the right to draft Eli Manning to the Giants.
Manning's refusal to play for San Diego resulted in the deal that also
yielded defensive standout Shawne Merriman and kicker Nate Kaeding
through the draft as well as veteran tackle Roman Oben.

So for all the focus on Rivers this season as he takes over under
center, understand this: The Chargers Offense runs through No. 21, who
as a runner, receiver and blocker is being asked to take some of the
big-play pressure off his team's newly minted starting quarterback.

"The fact that they took Ryan Leaf, that put the Chargers behind the
eight-ball," Tomlinson says. "They were expecting to have a franchise
quarterback for the next 15 years. So when Leaf didn't work out, it put
us in a rebuilding situation.

"It wasn't the situation we have now, where we've built something with
draft picks."

Leaf's personality, as well as his performance, contributed to his quick
exit.

"Philip has a little swagger to him," Tomlinson says. "Being a coach's
son, he knows how to connect with guys as a leader.

"He appreciates and understands the game. That's why he is who he is.

"He's going to do well for us this year. He's shown he's on his way."

Tomlinson doesn't care about making a fourth Pro Bowl or winning a
league rushing title. He's all about leaving his fingerprints on a
Lombardi Trophy.

"Winning a Super Bowl is what it's all about, that's why I play this
game," Tomlinson says. "You're remembered by winning championships.

"We have a good blend of both young and old guys, and everyone
understands what we're trying to do. We have a group of hungry guys who
want to win and expect to win. They understand it's all about all of us.
Don't let this opportunity slip."

Rivers gets that. He also understands the 2-0 Chargers stumbled out of
the gate last season at 0-2, went 4-4 at home and ultimately missed the
playoffs at 9-7. Tomlinson, big-play tight end Antonio Gates and a
smothering defense act as buffers for Rivers.

There will surely be times when Rivers will be challenged to make
decisive throws, most likely on third downs against the similarly
stifling Ravens and Steelers Defenses that the Chargers face Oct. 1 and
8, respectively. Rivers wasn't forced to make those throws as the
Chargers steamrolled the Raiders and Titans to open the season.

The Chargers have two things going for them in their transition from
highly respected Brees to Rivers, who earned his own respect with the
way he handled his two-year apprenticeship: they have chemistry to go
with all of their talent.

"We have a really good group, a college-type team in terms of
closeness," Rivers says. "That's what's made the transition so easy for
me. It's a great character team, and at the same time it's a close bunch.

"People say, 'It's your team now.' It's really our team. It's not
something that just happened this year. It's obviously something that's
been going on since I've been here.

"I'm in a great situation where I don't have to do too much."

Not every quarterback is blessed with a Tomlinson to help ease his
transition.

"The thing about L.T. is that there's a lot of superstars in this league
where they're above the team," Rivers says. "L.T. is amongst us,
practicing hard every day. He gives me even more confidence knowing not
only I can hand the ball to him, but that I can throw it to him as well
out of the backfield."

There is no timeline for a young quarterback's development, no way to
know when everything will click and his team will soar. Ben
Roethlisberger and Dan Marino are the ideal. Roethlisberger, the first
quarterback selected after Manning and Rivers in the 2004 draft, won a
Super Bowl in his second season with the Steelers. Marino took the
Dolphins to Super Bowl XIX in his second season.

Rivers inherits similar complementary parts to what Roethlisberger had:
a clock-consuming run game, a harassing defense and special teams that
can control field position and allow Rivers to know that sometimes a
punt is the safe play.

After all, Rivers has always had a precocious ability to read the field
and brings maturity and ability to the huddle.

"Philip got married before his junior year at N.C. State to his
middle-school sweetheart, Tiffany," says his dad, Steve.

"Philip was riding in the car with his mom, Joan, when he was in eighth
grade, and they passed Tiffany standing on a corner with her friends in
a residential area. Philip turned to his mom and said, 'You see that
girl right there, mom? She's a really good girl. I'm going to marry her
one day.' "

It forced Rivers to grow up early, raising a family while leading the
Wolfpack to a 34-17 record. He was the MVP of five bowl games, including
the 2004 Senior Bowl.

He showed in his second NFL start, a 40-7 throttling of the Titans, he
can be much more than an on-field manager for "Marty Ball," coach Marty
Schottenheimer's preference to control games with a strong run game. He
completed 25 of 35 passes for 225 yards, spreading the ball to nine
receivers and throwing a 12-yard touchdown strike to Vincent Jackson.

But afterward, Rivers beat himself up for a couple of big throws he just
missed, feeling he left points out on the field.

"I called him up after the game and left a message on his cellphone,
saying, 'I hope I never see you again,' " says Titans offensive
coordinator Norm Chow, who coached Rivers during his freshman year at
North Carolina State. "He called me right back and we talked.

"He's a special guy. He's the all-American kid, the point guard, the
shortstop who married his high school sweetheart. He has that 'it' factor.

"It was a pipedream on my part, but I can dream, too. Had Drew Brees not
got hurt — you don't know what they might have done with Philip. So I
was hoping maybe we might have had a chance to get him (last offseason)
because we knew we probably couldn't afford to have Steve McNair back.

"But Philip sat two years. It's time for him to play. The Chargers
handled it perfectly."

Rivers, who owns a funky-looking, three-quarter delivery, throws the
ball straighter and releases it quicker than some give him credit for.

"Everybody has different throwing styles, and there was never a need to
change Philip's motion," Chow says. "The thing you look for No. 1 is
that mental toughness and the accuracy. He has them both. Philip's a
winner."

Chargers general manager A.J. Smith, the longtime Bills scout, was sold
on Rivers' arm strength and leadership intangibles.

"Philip reminds me a lot of Dan Marino because of all my years in
Buffalo," Smith says. "People say, 'Well, what do you mean Dan Marino?'
In the sense of his quick release and his ability to shuffle in the
pocket and buy time with vision downfield. And he makes quick decisions.
Dan couldn't run and scoot, but he would shuffle left, shuffle right.
But the vision was always locked, not looking at a rush guy. He knows
they're there. He feels the rush. That's a quarterback gift.

"Philip is extremely accurate. Now it's a matter of him growing on the job."

ESPN analyst Merril Hoge also sees the comparison.

"Philip Rivers reminds me of Dan Marino," Hoge says. "He's already at a
level of anticipation that's unbelievable. He can throw that thing right
over somebody's shoulder right in their ear. He has a swagger when he
throws the ball, a willingness to throw where other quarterbacks
wouldn't even dream of it. The only other guy I've seen like that is
Marino."

Philip and Tiffany's daughter, Halle, 4, couldn't understand one of
life's little mysteries: Her daddy played football for a living, yet she
never saw him wearing his helmet during a game the last two years.

So before the Monday night season opener against the Raiders, Philip
told Halle not only could she stay up to watch the game but there would
be a fun reason to watch.

"Halle doesn't know what an interception is and all that, but she
understands I'm going to football," Rivers says. "She knows where I
work. Last year, midway through the year, I said, 'You going to watch
Dad today?' They still showed me on the sideline and she would say,
'Yeah, but how come you don't ever wear your helmet?'

"It was funny. I was leaving to go to Oakland and I said, 'Hey, you
going to watch Dad? You can stay up late tonight. And I'm going to have
my helmet on most of the time.' "

Rivers has a born leader's charisma. He's a grounded guy who genuinely
cares about connecting with people. It's a football trait he got from
his father, a high school coach in football-crazed Alabama for 33 years.

Their folksy Southern drawls are so similar that when people would call
the Rivers household, they invariably had trouble telling whether they
were talking to Philip or Steve.

Rivers wears No. 17 because it was his dad's number as a high school
standout and safety at Mississippi State. His father was the best man at
his wedding, and the two talk daily by phone.

Steve remembers his son coming home after practice, mimicking the
positional drills he'd witnessed that day out in the backyard. It's
where he taught himself to throw with that slingshot motion that is his
composite of all those quarterback posters on his bedroom wall growing
up — Marino, Brett Favre, John Elway, Joe Montana and Troy Aikman.

One of the toughest moments father and son experienced was the ending to
Philip's high school career when the realization of something far more
permanent than just a playoff loss hit hard.

"It was just a touching moment, our time together as coach and player
was final," Steve Rivers says. "Those were good times we had together.
You think back to him having been on the practice field with me from
when he was 6 years old.

"We had a real good team and we had just lost a heartbreaking game in
the quarterfinals of the state championship. A lot of people have
apprehensions of coaching their son. Not me. I loved it. Philip loved
it. And then the rug was pulled out from under us.

"In the locker room, I was picking up some Gatorade bottles. We didn't
realize we were the only two left in there. We approached each other,
and I said, 'I'm sorry it's over.' And Philip said, 'I love you Dad as
well.'

"He's a good guy and a good teammate. He's a good daddy and husband
who's made his mother and I proud."

Rivers has communication skills encoded into his DNA.

"I remember being out there doing defensive line drills this offseason
and having Philip come out there and just watch us, the defensive
linemen," second-year end Luis Castillo says. "We were like, 'What the
heck are you doing out here?'

"He was just really making an effort to connect with his teammates and
to really gain our trust. He knows he has our respect, and he wants to
continue to strengthen that bond.

"I came in last year as a first-round pick and saw this guy who was the
No. 4 overall pick the year before who wasn't coming to practice every
day all ticked off that he wasn't playing. He was working hard. Then,
after Drew left, Philip assumed that responsibility of being the guy."

Leave it to the coach's son to make a point of developing a rapport with
his go-to receiver for years to come. Rivers and Gates are close in age
and are fun-loving, fierce competitors at anything, from basketball to
table tennis.

Gates, the former Kent State basketball forward, cleans up on the court,
but Rivers owns his tight end on the ping-pong table. Rivers is teaching
Gates poker.

The two locker side by side and live less than a mile apart.

When they aren't working to perfect their timing, they are trash-talking
about who can beat whom at what.

Gates, 26, a Detroit native, is told his ebullient, sunny personality
recalls a young Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

"Yeah, Magic was from Michigan and that's where I'm from, and I've heard
that before," Gates says. "Myself and Philip both have the same goal, to
win a championship. That alone brings you closer, and we understand what
it takes.

"When we saw each other's personal side based on this business, we were
like, 'Wow! We're similar. We can be real good friends.'

"I understand the fire this guy has, just the way he competes at
everything. We can be trying to throw something in the trash and we're
competing to try to beat each other.

"We're real good friends outside of football. We challenge each other
every day at something.

"It's like we've been playing together for years."

That rapport will be all the more important under the duress of an
all-out blitz.

Smith grew up in the Bills organization under Marv Levy, Bill Polian and
late Chargers GM John Butler, whom Smith succeeded. He followed the
Bills' Super Bowl blueprint in building the current Chargers team:
finding a Thurman Thomas-like back in Tomlinson and building a dominant
defense under current coordinator Wade Phillips, who coached in the
Bills organization.

Levy's Bills proved remarkably resilient by overcoming bitter
disappointment to reach four consecutive Super Bowls.

Smith knows the importance that Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly
played in epitomizing that resilience.

"The way I sum it up is there are three marquee players who came out in
that 2004 draft: Roethlisberger, Manning and Rivers," Smith says. "Those
guys reminded me of some great quarterbacks who came out in '83. I think
the three of them are going to be exceptional quarterbacks in the NFL. I
wouldn't be the least bit surprised if all three were winning Super
Bowls, if they're in the right spot.

"Just talking on talent, those three are special. Who's first, second
and third? I think you can figure who I had first and second."

Former NFL quarterback Neil O'Donnell likes what he's seen from Rivers.

"He looked the part," says O'Donnell, now a Titans television analyst.
"He was reading his third receiver. On a naked bootleg, his eyes went to
L.T. on a shallow crossing route, his third read. He managed the whole
game. That's what you have to do at the quarterback position. You have
to get in that zone. Philip is letting the game come to him and not
trying to force the ball downfield."

This is the NFL opportunity Rivers has visualized since he was 10,
pasting his face over then-Vikings wide receiver Cris Carter's on the
cover of Sports Illustrated.

"I have that poster board up on our den wall," Steve Rivers says. "It
says, 'Philip Rivers, age 10. Things I like: Church, family. Things I
don't like: Lima beans. What I want to be when I grow up:' There's a
picture of Cris Carter on the cover of SI and Philip put his face over it."

Rivers taped a memorable picture up in Merriman's locker as well.

It was a shot of Rivers and Merriman going chest to chest when Rivers
played at North Carolina State and Merriman at Maryland. Rivers was
frustrated because Merriman had sacked him.

"It was late in our last game at Maryland in 2003," Rivers says. "We
never beat Maryland, and the game was over at that point and he had just
got me again. I don't remember what was said, but it was a cool picture,
us going face to face. We laugh about it now. I put it in his locker
when he got drafted here."

Says Merriman, "Anytime you see your quarterback not being a guy who's
going to be pushed around, that symbolizes your team."

Schottenheimer sees Marino's fire in a third-year quarterback willing to
jump someone when an intolerable mistake is made.

"Philip has all the intangibles," Schottenheimer says. "He shows his
emotions more than Drew did. Drew was very businesslike. Philip is more
inclined to get in your face like Marino would."

Smith staked his scout's reputation on Rivers. "Even though I'm a scout,
sometimes you just go with your instincts," Smith says. "Time proves you
wrong or proves you right. That's the beauty of our business.

"I just believe Philip Rivers is going to be special. I think he has a
bright, bright future."

The question is, can that bright future arrive this postseason? These
Chargers are planning on it.

***

Contributing: USA TODAY's Mike Bambach

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