Column: Rivers is grateful, sad, ready

San Diego Union-Tribune

Jan. 13, 2017 1:35 PM PT

This is exactly how we knew we would find Philip Rivers, some 36 hours after learning he must leave the city he and his family have so happily called home.

The Chargers quarterback is one of history’s most regular superstars with a nine-figure bank balance. He has always been characterized by candor and brimming with passion.

And on Friday morning he was caught in between two cities and two emotions.

“It’s weird,” Rivers said. “Numb is the first way to describe how I feel. We should feel sadness as a community. I am sad.”

He is a San Diegan, figured he always would be. But he is now, too, a Los Angeles Charger.

“I want to make sure San Diego fans know how much we love San Diego, how grateful we are and how many great memories we have,” Rivers said. “… In the very next breath, I have to express I am going up the road and those folks are going to get the very same guy the people in San Diego got for 13 years.”

That means sincere and positive and a little bit hyper.

We really couldn’t ask anything else of him.

There is Dean Spanos and there is Philip Rivers, the same way a toilet and a shower coexist in a restroom. What it is acceptable to deposit in the former should never be dumped on the latter.

Rivers, of course, works for Spanos. But don’t confuse that arrangement, either, as one compelling Rivers to spout the company line about Los Angeles. This is who he is. He’d be zealous if told the Chargers were relocating to Mars and would be playing in a bubble.

“I only know one way,” he said.

He has never been thrilled about leaving San Diego. That has a lot more to do with affection for his adopted hometown than aversion to Los Angeles.

“It’s not because I don’t like L.A.,” he said. “I don’t know anything about L.A.”

He caught himself when asked how many times he has been to Los Angeles.

“Well, Dis-,“ he said. “See, I don’t know what parts count as L.A.”

He knows enough to know there is a difference between Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Outside of the Magic Kingdom, Rivers counted a number of Clippers games he’s attended. (He has joked about having gotten to know his uncle, the Clippers coach, Doc Rivers.) He went to a couple Lakers playoff games a few years back, has been to UCLA and once visited someone at USC.

That is all he could recall. Los Angeles will soon find out he’s neither red carpet nor Rodeo Drive. He’s cowboy boots and jeans when he’s not T-shirt, gym shorts and shower shoes. He plays football, watches his kids play sports and goes home. He relishes the relative sleepiness and quaintness of San Diego, especially his family’s Santaluz enclave.

Rivers, now 35 years old and with three seasons left on his contract, became a Charger in 2004. He and his wife, Tiffany, had a one-year-old daughter at the time. They have added seven children since, all born in San Diego.

He is one of the few people who think Qualcomm Stadium is beautiful, because his team played there and the fans rewarded the Chargers in the years they were winning.

“I’m going to give (Los Angeles) everything I have left,” Rivers said. “But when the dust settles I’m going to look back and think about my time as a San Diego Charger.”

The Rivers family has for a while anticipated building a home on property they own in Rancho Santa Fe, where they would live after Rivers retires. Those plans may have been altered. Maybe they’ll end up back closer to their Alabama roots when Rivers’ contract expires after the 2019 season. It is too soon for them to have digested what this move means for their long-term future.

The Chargers will continue to work out of their Murphy Canyon headquarters for at least the next few months before relocating their offices and practice facility to Costa Mesa. The likelihood is Rivers will commute from San Diego for a while after that move, staying in Orange County a few nights each week.

“We’re going to exhaust all of it the next five months,” he said of the possibilities. “I’m going to drive it early, drive it in late afternoon. We’ll look around at all the neighborhoods. We’ll see where the Catholic churches are, the schools. We’re going to do all of it; we’re going to digest it all.”

For now, quickly and earnestly, if reluctantly, Rivers is ready to get to work up north.

He expressed regret he couldn’t help win a championship for San Diego but left no doubt he’ll continue the quest in L.A.

“I know that we are up against a long history of professional sports teams there, with a lot of championships,” Rivers said. “We understand that we have to win. I know only going one way. I am going to go try to help the Los Angeles Chargers, which I can’t get used to saying, but we gotta go win.”

In his characteristic manner, Rivers expressed hope that Angelenos would be curious about the Chargers and reiterated his belief the team can be entertaining enough and win enough to excite the persnickety L.A. fan base.

He gets the pain. He understands the anger.

“It’s a hard time,” he said. “I’m caught in the middle. I want to give a proper farewell to San Diego. But I am going to go up the road and talk about us and how I want to get going.”

At that, he said for at least a third time, “I hope the people of San Diego understand that. I want to make sure I do justice to San Diego and the sadness we all feel.”

He also hopes that one day a number of San Diego fans would drive up to watch the Chargers play or at least recall their connection with pride.

“I hope when it settles here they can turn on the TV and look and see me play and hopefully I can do something good and they go, ‘That’s my guy,’<TH>” Rivers said. “It’s too early now, but I hope at some point down the road they can turn on the TV and see me play and I can do good things and they can say that’s why they cheered for me. … Not that it’s about me. Not just me – my teammates, the guys they love watching.”

San Diego did love watching them, especially Rivers for much of the time.

That he made sure to honor that and reciprocate is exactly what was expected. It is appreciated. So, too, it should be respected how he must move on.

Chargers