This weekend, the NFL welcomes back 44-year-old Philip Rivers, who will quarterback the Indianapolis Colts after retiring nearly five years ago. The Colts, having lost starting quarterback Daniel Jones for the season and on the verge of playoff elimination, borrowed Rivers from St. Michael Catholic High School, where he was coaching, to be both the \u201csomething old\u201d and \u201csomething new\u201d to their \u201csomething blue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rivers is older than 13 NFL head coaches, making this a confounding choice by both parties, but on today\u2019s episode of \u201cThe Athletic Show,\u201d we dive into the constant mental battle that aging NFL players face. Often, aging athletes retire not because of physical ailments, but because their animal instincts lead them to avoid situations that put their bodies in harm\u2019s way. They still see the game the same way, but because of a combination of slowed reaction time and self-preservation overriding their decision-making, they can\u2019t execute as they used to. The exhilaration of playing professional sports is a beguiling call to danger, and we explore why Rivers may have succumbed to its siren song.<\/p>\n
Much of the discussion around Rivers\u2019 return is centered on the physical danger he faces, so it\u2019s no wonder a less violent version of football has been steadily gaining traction this decade. Flag football, once relegated to intramural fields and rec leagues, has grown into a professional-grade product set to make its debut in the 2028 Summer Olympics. One might expect the NFL to view flag football as competition to be crushed, but The Athletic\u2019s Tim Graham joins the show to explain why the league is taking the opposite view. The NFL recently voted to allow active players to try out for the Olympics, and Graham says league powers view flag football as a salve for the PR fallout caused by so many high-profile injuries and the ongoing CTE crisis among players.<\/p>\n
Flag football is co-ed, far safer than tackle, and provides an alternative for parents who are worried about their children\u2019s participation in such a physically brutal sport. But the pros in flag aren\u2019t exactly eager to have NFL personnel flooding into their ranks. Team USA is currently undefeated, and we explore why the NFL doesn\u2019t prepare its players for the demands of a lighter, faster variant of football.<\/p>\n
And speaking of football \u201cvariants,\u201d why is America the only place in the world that refers to the biggest sport on earth as \u201csoccer\u201d? With the World Cup months away and the U.S. acting as the primary host nation, is it time to consider joining the rest of the globe and calling it \u201cfootball\u201d? President Donald Trump recently said he thinks so, but given the amount of space that pigskin football occupies in the American consciousness, such a change seems too tectonic to be possible. We explore how the U.S. ended up as the last \u201csoccer\u201d holdout, and whether there\u2019s any chance at altering the terminology this late in the game. Watch now on FireTV or listen anywhere on your Alexa device.<\/p>\n