Philip Rivers “was willing to come out of retirement to play for the 49ers if they made it to the Super Bowl,” says San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was prepared to make one of the most bizarre decisions in NFL history if his team won the NFC Championship game.

As San Francisco watched as both starting QB Brock Purdy and backup Josh Johnson went down injured in the conference title game against Philadelphia, the Niners would have entered the Super Bowl without a quarterback had they made it.

They may have turned to an unlikely source for help as they reached Super Bowl LVII: retired quarterback Philip Rivers.

According to Shanahan, he had been in talks with the former San Diego Chargers and Indianapolis Colts quarterback about a possible return to the Super Bowl — despite not having shot a shot in two seasons.

When asked if Rivers wanted to come back for the Niners, Shanahan said, “He was willing to.”

Coach Kyle Shanahan said Rivers was “willing” to come to San Francisco if necessary

Brock Purdy, the Niners’ starting quarterback, ripped his UCL against Philadelphia in the NFC Championship game. As a result and more injuries, San Francisco lost 31-7.

Shanahan added, “It’s stuff we’ve talked about all year. We should have seen what it was like before the Super Bowl, but that was the plan for most of the year.”

You may recall that the San Francisco 49ers were completely snake-bitten when it came to luck with the health of their quarterbacks in the 2022 season.

Just two games into the campaign, scheduled starter Trey Lance went down with an injury that sidelined him for the rest of the season.

The torch was passed to Jimmy Garoppolo – who played in eleven games before going down injured.

That left the offense in the hands of Brock Purdy – a rookie quarterback from Iowa State who was selected last in that year’s draft.

Purdy appeared solid below center before getting injured in the NFC title game. Johnson replaced him, but he too went down with a bad concussion that forced Shanahan to return to Purdy.

Playing with a torn UCL, Purdy and the Niners offense struggled to score as Philadelphia won 31-7.

Consider this another one of the sport’s great “what if” moments throughout history, as 41-year-old Philip Rivers – who has never played for the Niners and has never played in Shanahan’s offensive system – his first shots of the NFL season in the Super Bowl against Kansas City.

Last year was terrible for the Niners’ QB health as Trey Lance played two games before getting injured

Jimmy Garoppolo made an appearance for about eleven games, but then also went down injured

Then, after Purdy went down in the title game, Josh Johnson came in – then he also got injured

Rivers is arguably the greatest quarterback in Chargers history—throwing for 59,271 yards and a career-high 397 touchdowns.

With the Chargers he reached the AFC Championship once in 2007 – where they lost to the then undefeated New England Patriots.

He totals 63,440 yards, 421 touchdowns, and 209 interceptions over most of his NFL career from 2004-2020.

In the playoffs, Rivers totals 2,965 yards and 16 touchdowns in twelve games.