It's only been two games since quarterback Philip Rivers elected to come out of retirement at the age of 44 in an attempt to salvage the season for the Indianapolis Colts after a series of injuries at the position.
Given his performance thus far after not playing in an NFL game since retiring after a playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills in 2021, it's been more than enough to get former teammates and fellow star quarterbacks to at least discuss the idea of "unretiring."
Amazingly, that includes 64-year-old Super Bowl champion and 49ers legend Steve Young.
"The one thing I will tell you, as a quarterback, I really do believe, if you could somehow do the 'Benjamin Button' thing and just somehow go back and play," Young said on KNBR, a Bay Area radio station. "One of the things that would be like riding a bike is sitting in the pocket and reading defenses. That's not going to go away, and it didn't for Philip [Rivers]. You could see that he could do that."
Despite being 20 years older than Rivers, Young makes a great point in that there absolutely is such a thing as a "Football IQ" that NFL players tend to hang onto, and particularly so for a position like quarterback that holds such great responsibility.
Although the Colts ended up losing to the 49ers 48-27 on Monday Night Football, that's exactly what allowed Rivers to keep the game close in the first half.
Still, Young took a somewhat cautious approach while expressing that, at 64, he can still sling it.
"I absolutely feel confident that I could take the snap, run the screen game, throw the ball in the flat, maybe throw a slant," Young continued. "It’s not like, 'Put on the pads and go play.' Still, if it was ‘Hunger Games’? If they said, you had to do this or die? Yeah, you could pull off something."
Young went on to offer up a great quote that helped in explaining what may have assisted in driving Rivers to come back after five years away from the game.
"It [Rivers coming back] allows all of us to kind of say even more, 'Could I go out there for five plays? Could I go out there and run the screen game? Because you got to remember, all of us, we were the best in the world at something. And then we were out, and we’re not the best at anything else. So you kind of want to keep doing what you were best in the world at."
Young retired in 1999 as a three-time Super Bowl champion and two-time NFL MVP, earning a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.
