Rivers retired from the N.F.L. in 2021, after seventeen seasons. He was brought back into service after Daniel Jones—who’d led the Colts to a record-breaking offensive start during the first half of the season, before faltering in the previous few games—tore his Achilles tendon. The Colts’ backup, Anthony Richardson, had already fractured his orbital bone, in October, in a freak accident, while warming up. Richardson’s place on the bench had been taken by Riley Leonard, but Leonard sustained a knee injury after coming in to replace the sidelined Jones. The only other quarterback on the Colts’ roster was Brett Rypien, who’d been signed to the practice squad following Richardson’s injury, a week after being cut by the Cincinnati Bengals to make room for Joe Flacco, a forty-year-old quarterback. What about Rypien, you may be wondering? Me, too. But, in his career as a journeyman backup, he’d thrown four touchdowns against nine interceptions. There was little chance that Rypien would salvage the Colts’ dwindling playoff hopes.journey-inline-newsletterinline-newsletter