Quarterback Philip Rivers surpasses the Football Hall of Fame

The moment the Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Philip Rivers announced his retirement, the chatter started: “Will No. 17 be a Hall of Famer?”

As soon as a giant leaves the land, the chatter begins: “He wasn’t that big. Others were bigger.” This criticism doesn’t come from other giants, but from people who don’t stand  as tall as the giant’s injured big toe.

I’ll answer that question the way I think Rivers would:  “I don’t know about the Hall of Fame.  Like winning a Super Bowl, it would be great — but not having that wouldn’t make me unhappy.”

As for winning a Super Bowl, I expect you could list a few big dreams of your own that haven’t happened yet. But does that make you unhappy? Does that mean you didn’t and won’t do some great work? I wanted to win an Academy Award. I also wanted to win the Powerball lottery. Such dreams, like a mirage, remain on the horizon – but we all are answerable only for what we can control, and none of us should see lack of opportunity as failure, only lack of effort. Because those kinds of “success” are temporary.

If you disagree, then from your memory can you tell us who won, say,  Super Bowl XXIII, who were the starting quarterbacks,  and who was Benny Friedman?

(Benny is a quarterback in the Hall of Fame who, face it, neither of us even heard of).

It was a famous NFL coach who said, “Winning isn’t the biggest thing, it’s the only thing.” That view is toxic to manhood, unless the definition of winning is enlarged beyond the outcome of an ultimately meaningless stat. If you are addicted to sports, this may make little sense to you, but there is an old poem that says:

"“When the last Great Scorer comes to write beside my name, He’ll ask not whether I won or lost, but how I played the game.”"

Here’s a quote from the old gunslinger Rivers himself, right after the final game of a bitterly disappointing 2019 season, a loss to Miami, when he blurted out:

"“I don’t care about the (late game) interception, I don’t care about my numbers, I was trying to win the dang game!”"

Later here, we’ll do a deep dive into statistics in context, but first a quick review of the character of the man. Because Hall of Famers (like Benny Friedman) aren’t necessarily legendary.

And legends aren’t necessarily Hall of Famers.