First off, let me start by congratulating Ben Higgins and Chris Ello on being moved from lunchtime to 6am-9am on XTRA Sports 1360AM. They've been one of my favorite tandems in San Diego sports radio for a while, and are poised to challenge the Dave & Jeff show on 1090AM for those rush-hour ratings.
Now, Philip Rivers is all over the place today and yesterday to promote his 5K Celebrity Walk & Fun Run that is happening this Sunday. One of his stops was Ben and Chris' "The World of Sports" Show (audio here). Here are the notes:
- 3 minutes into the interview, and all they've talked about is the 5K and the Rivers of Hope Foundation. That's cool, but this is a football blog. They are going to be talking about football, right?
- Rivers says that there's probably more new guys on offense than they've ever had while he's been there. He says the new group seems to have a lot of speed.
- "There's a lot of new guys. We're not where we need to be, but we're heading in the right direction."
- Here's something I like about Philip: He's not afraid to admit that he misses Vincent Jackson, but knows that it's not going to accomplish anything so he moves on.
- I did not expect the first Eddie Royal-Darren Sproles comparison to come from Philip Rivers, but there it is. "He's got a little bit of that jitterbug."
- The more excited Rivers gets, the more he sounds like Porky Pig. Remember this next time you hear him on the radio. It makes the interview 5x more exciting.
- Norv's offense pretty much stays the same year-to-year, with wrinkles added in and a little tweaking to account for different personnel.
More after the jump.
- Philip went back and watched the tape from 2011 and blames himself for the team missing the playoffs.
- "You never like to go through something like [his 2011 season], but I'm a better player today for having gone through that. I'm a better man for having gone through that."
- Philip on the opinions of the media and the fans: "I learned during my rookie season that, if you let it, the outside world will destroy you, both good and bad. You need to have the ability to handle criticism and handle praise."
- Talking about being mic'd up for games: "You pay attention during warm-ups and make sure you're comfortable with it, but once the game starts you completely forget you're wearing it."