Inside the wildest dadgum comeback in NFL history

PHILIP RIVERS RISES. He has been teed up by his new/former coach, Shane Steichen, to address his new/former Indianapolis Colts teammates for the first time after what has been the most unprecedented this-can't-be-real unretirement in NFL history. It's the morning of Dec. 10, and the Colts are reeling as 44-year-old Rivers stands up to say a few words. He looks at a crowd of about 70 players and sees some familiar faces -- 14 Colts played with him in 2020, his last season in the league. But the rest are newbies who know only the dadgum lore of Philip Rivers. This roster has been through it this year. The Colts were 7-1 through eight weeks, and now are suddenly 8-5, with QB Daniel Jones suffering a season-ending Achilles injury three days earlier against Jacksonville. Some players describe the locker room that Sunday after the Jags game as devastated. Others say that description is an understatement. Most use the same word to describe what it felt like as they got on the team plane: There was no "juice." Rivers provides 100 percent organic, detoxified juice. The day after the loss, buzz had leaked out that the Colts were entertaining the implausible possibility of signing the high school football coach and grandfather from Alabama. Player group chats immediately began buzzing all night into Tuesday as everybody waited for confirmation. Rivers said even as late as lunchtime that Tuesday, he still was sitting in a hotel room, wrestling with whether he wanted to play again. But the rest of the organization had become reinvigorated at even the chance that Rivers might return. When the verdict came in that Rivers wanted to give it one last go, resetting his Hall of Fame candidacy by five years, those group chats lit up with what the Colts felt like they had lost. "He is the definition of juice," running back Jonathan Taylor said. As Rivers gets to his feet the next day, his former teammates smile because they know what's about to happen for the young guys in the room. Rivers is a one-of-one adventure, a puffy-cheeked tornado of exuberance that plays at 1.25 speed as he waves his hands and rapid-fires some of the most animated, aggressive non-swearing pep talks in football history. Much has been made of his age, but he has always been one of the NFL's most dadly dads. It is quite an experience to observe others take it all in. "It was funny to watch everybody watch him," longtime Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "It was a shot of adrenaline into our team when we needed it the most." Rivers speaks for about 30 seconds, and it's telling that none of the 14 Colts interviewed for this story, including Rivers, can clearly remember what he said. This is what Rivers can bring -- a passionate, amorphous blob of positive energy that will move the emotional needle for almost anybody. That's the unforgettable part, not the words themselves. The best cobbled-together recollection...

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