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It doesn’t look like Philip Rivers wants to stay away from pro football.
Just as he became a Hall of Fame semifinalist, Rivers pushed his eligibility back to Canton to return to the NFL after nearly five years away, playing three games for the Indianapolis Colts this past season.
But now, in his second retirement, Rivers is reportedly interviewing for the vacant Buffalo Bills coaching job.
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Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers stands on the sideline during the first half against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium. (Troy Taormina/Imagn Images)
The Bills fired Sean McDermott on Monday, two days after a controversial loss to the Denver Broncos in the AFC divisional round. Owner Terry Pegula said the loss resulted in McDermott’s firing.
Rivers is currently the head coach at St. Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope, Alabama. He announced his official retirement just before the New Year.
“I’m (done),” Rivers said at the time. “I got a son who’s going to be a senior and I got that St. Michael football team ready to go. We got beat in the semifinals two years in a row,” he added. “So, this will be his senior year. My other son will be in ninth grade. They will be on the same team together.
“So, it’s going to be fun to get back home with the boys. The school has been really excited. A lot of them came to the game last week. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to kick off our offseason program, to say the least. Maybe the things I say to them, now that I was just out there playing, they’ll take it a little more seriously.”
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) passes against the San Francisco 49ers during the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
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Rivers returned amid an injury to Daniel Jones, while Anthony Richardson was also not healthy.
“Everything just lined up,” he said. “It was a place I had been, a team I was familiar with, the offense was exactly the same. The coach I knew. It was all those things that made it the perfect storm.
“I’m back on the sidelines. This was a fun three-week blur that nobody saw coming, including myself, and that will be it.”
He’s definitely back on the sidelines, but maybe it’ll be an NFL one.
Rivers had 544 passing yards, four touchdown passes and three interceptions in those three starts. He finished his NFL career with 63,984 passing yards and 425 passing touchdowns.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers throws during the first half of an NFL game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Indianapolis, Indiana, on December 28, 2025. (Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo)
The Bills’ defeat marked another crushing blow to McDermott’s tenure as the Bills’ head coach. McDermott took the job before the start of the 2017 season, and Buffalo has finished below .500 just once since then. He helped guide the Bills to the playoffs in eight of his nine seasons. The team reached the conference title game twice but never made it back to the Super Bowl.
