SAN DIEGO -- Anointed as the future of the franchise when the San Diego Chargers executed a draft-day trade to secure his services in 2004, Philip Rivers believed he was ready to play his rookie season.
But someone else had other ideas -- Drew Brees.
"He bowed up and said, 'Hold on a minute,'" Rivers said, smiling. "That was his approach, and that would have been mine, too. And I was a young guy going, 'No, I’m here to play.'
"It was kind of an unspoken understanding, but yet the relationship was very good.