Philip Rivers is a grandfather.
He's the only grandpa playing in the NFL right now after making his comeback from retirement to suit up for the Indianapolis Colts at 44 years old.
In fact, he's one of only a handful of grandparents to ever suit up in the major men's professional sports leagues.
It's a tough thing to track, but ESPN's stats guru Paul Hembekides took a shot at it and shared his findings on X before Rivers made his official return.
The four legends of sports whom Hembekides discovered played in their respective leagues as grandparents:
- Stan Musial
- Gordie Howe
- Julio Franco
- Brett Favre
And now Rivers.
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There are obviously layers of factors that have to happen to have a professional athlete play while they have a grandchild already born, so even for other players who lasted a long time, it's certainly not a given.
Rivers, who famously has 10 kids, has a grandkid, too.
Not many were expecting Rivers to come back. Shoot, he signed a one-day contract in July to retire as a member of the Chargers.
But here he is, back on the NFL field, having nearly won his first game against the Seahawks and now playing against the 49ers on Monday night in Week 16.
His large family will be watching and is surely very proud.
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- We now know why DK Metcalf wasn't ejected for shoving a fan
- An absolutely crazy ending to the Steelers-Lions game
- The guy who Saquon hurdled just had his own cool hurdle
- Travis Kelce has joined Jerry Rice in NFL history