For many football fans, July 21st of 2025 will go down as the official end of what was once the greatest quarterback era in NFL history. After somehow managing to outlast the likes of his contemporaries in Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, and the Manning Brothers, the former face of the Los Angeles Chargers, Philip Rivers, is officially calling it quits five years after having played his final snap in the NFL.
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An eight-time Pro Bowler and 17-year veteran, Philip will officially retire as a Charger, and he’s taking Brady’s all-time career pass completion percentage record with him. The 2013 Comeback Player of the Year walks away from the gridiron with a career completion percentage of 64.9%, tied with Lamar Jackson for the 21st highest percentage in NFL history.
Despite never managing to find much playoff success against them, Rivers’ completion percentage officially ranks higher than that of both Brady and Roethlisberger. The former New England Patriot retired with a completion percentage of 64.3%, while Roethlisberger managed to narrowly edge him out with a career percentage of 64.4%.
In fact, Rivers managed to beat out several notable names prior to his initial exit in 2020. The San Francisco legends that are Joe Montana and Steve Young posted career completion percentages of 63.2% and 64.3%, highlighting just how remarkable Philips was.
Throughout the 240 regular season starts that Rivers was able to make throughout his career, he would manage to win 134 of them, granting him a career win percentage of .558. While that may not be enough to make him one of the 25 most-winning quarterbacks, his career win total of 134 is the ninth highest of any signal caller in NFL history.
Rivers will go down in history as the greatest quarterback in the history of the Chargers’ organization. He holds their franchise records for passing attempts, completions, yards, and touchdowns.
He also played in a grand total of 228 games for the AFC West competitors, easily the most of any player in the history of the franchise. Throughout his 16 seasons with the club, Rivers managed to produce a total of six playoff berths for the Chargers.
While a career playoff record of 5-7 is certainly lackluster, it’s worth remembering that Rivers was routinely tasked with competing against some of the greatest quarterbacks to ever grace the field, so the fact that he was even able to secure multiple playoff appearances is more than deserving of praise.
For both Charger and football fans as a whole, Rivers’ retirement means that the glory days of the signal-calling position are well behind us.
