Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers shared this thoughts on the team's move to Los Angeles on sports radio early Friday.
Fans heard from Rivers for the first time when he spoke on the "Hardwick and Richards" show.
On how he found out:
“Like most things these days, nowadays, they start to leak a little sooner than it’s actually official. I thought the report was probably accurate the night before we were all hearing and I spoke with John Spanos early yesterday morning right before the whole thing went down at 8 a.m. and there on. Found out that way. Gosh, guys, I think like I told you a few days before a little bit numb about it all even beforehand and now even more so. I think it hadn’t really settled in.”
On wearing "Los Angeles" on his jersey:
“It’s all real new. It’s almost a little bit… Yeah, I can’t really resonate with it – yet. Shoot, I want to be very uh, … the word’s not fair… I want to be clear that my love for San Diego the time here, the memories we’ve had, the games, practices – everything about it is special and awesome. That’ll never go away. But at the same time – and I hope that people will understand this: I have to get excited and fired up about going up to a new area and representing our team, our organization and going and trying to, shoot, win as many games as we can win and be the same guy that I’ve always been. That’s the only way I know. So, I’m kinda in the middle of that, leaving behind something that, shoot, you love and you’re thankful for and you want to make sure everybody knows that and then, at the same time, I don’t want people around here to go, ‘Golly he sure seems so fired up to go up there.’ I’m just fired up all the time for whatever the task is. That’s just the only way I know. I hope as the dust settles a little bit. I know there are a lot of emotions right now, I hope people can understand that.”
“I hope that when the dust does settle that people who have been fans here for a long time can still watch the game on Sunday and go ‘Hey, that’s our quarterback.’ You want them to still feel that. Because you always do it’s like your hometown.”
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“I hope they can still claim that here not just for me but all the guys and players they pulled for and the team in general. And hopefully up there, shoot, it’s brand new. It doesn’t happen overnight. You got to go there and build relationships and meet people. Shoot, guys I’ll be talking to for radio and print and TV and all those things, it’s all brand new. Then we gotta go play and still fight like crazy to win football games with the same group of guys in a different area. It’s really weird for me. It’s uncharted territory.”
On whether the team will do well in LA:
“Well, we’re going to find out and as anyone would expect the quarterback of the company to say, heck yeah, I believe. I do, I really do. It’s uncharted for all of us. I don’t envy the position Dean and his family are in. I don’t know all the details. I try my hardest just to accept my role as a quarterback and what that entails of leading a group of guys and find a way to get first downs and being – not a spokesman – but being that figurehead of the team, all of those things that come along with being the role of the quarterback. But not knowing every ins and outs of what we should do here or should do there when it’s above me. So, I don’t envy the position they were in. I know it was hard and it was. When it’s new like this, like a playoff loss or a tough time on the field, time can make things better. I know it’s not going to ever just be great and San Diego is going to just say, ‘Oh, that’s not a big deal’ I know it’s a big deal. I know it’s a big deal to come to this. But, we’re going go and I’m going to do my part the only way I know how. The Philip Rivers that San Diego’s gotten over the last 13 years that’s what they’re going to get up there. And I’m going to embrace that. And go like crazy. I’m not going to be there 13 years but I’m going to give them all I got for the short time I got left.”
On playing at StubHub:
“The bottom line to me is this: I’m not naïve to where we’re going and the market that’s there and the sense of how many pro sports teams and all more than that goes on up there. It’s about you gotta win. You win, people will be excited to come. You don’t win, then ain’t nobody going to be there. That’s just the way it’s going to be.”
How his family will be affected:
"I've been here 13 years and obviously this community means a great deal to me and we love it here."
"We don't know yet. We're going to exhaust all the options. It's still all real new. We have a little bit of an idea of where that facility may be, an idea that if it does go that way it may be the StubHub for two years. We've had a little bit of an idea. But I think now you have the next four, five months to figure it all out."
On that logo:
“I think in fairness and I don’t know, again, I don’t think it’s necessarily our logo for the future like that’s our new logo forever going forward. I don’t know exactly what it is. I did see the fun with it. It’s alright. You’d expect it. Regardless of what that logo was, they were going to find some way to shoot holes in it I’m sure at that point yesterday.
Ed. Note: A previous version of this article referred to Philip Rivers as the San Diego Chargers quarterback. We have corrected this and regret the error. Please give us time. We're still getting use to this, too.