That party is something Philip will always cherish, but so are the family dinners he and Tiffany make sure they all enjoy throughout every week. They all sit around the table Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, talking about their days and what's going on in their lives.

"Those family dinners are the best," Philip said. "That's something we make sure to do even though obviously it's harder in season. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we'll have them for sure. When I come home it's about ready to go and the girls are all helping, and we all sit in there and eat and kind of tell school stories. I tell a little bit of what's going on if there is anything new."

"It means a lot to have those dinners and have him at home," said Halle. "It really does because we know how busy he could be, but he wants to be with us. It's fun. There's never a dull moment with eight kids, so it's fun with all of us at home. We usually sit down to dinner, all of us every night, we try to. It's awesome."

Monday night, however, is football night.

They'll grab a plate and huddle around the TV to watch that night's primetime game.

"We call it ballgame food," Philip said. "We don't do a sit-down dinner Monday night. We have the game on and some people are sitting at the kitchen island, some people will sit in front of the TV and we watch it together."

While a small group of the Rivers bunch do travel to games throughout the year, most of the time they watch the Chargers' road games at home on TV. Those Sundays are a family affair, with everyone huddled together rooting on their dad from thousands of miles away.

"It's really fun," Halle said. "A lot of nerves, of course, but a lot of excitement, too. A lot of screaming at the TV and stuff, but it's really fun."

However, as you'd expect, Rivers' children prefer to watch their dad in person at StubHub Center.

"It's kind of crazy because we're wearing his jersey and sometimes people say 'Hi, Philip Rivers,' because I am wearing the jersey," Gunner said. "But they don't actually know that I'm actually Philip Rivers! Gunner is my middle name."

Those home games mean the world to Philip as well, who often looks up at his family after a big play.

"I love after we score a touchdown, looking up there and seeing how fired up they are," he said. "It's cool to see how excited they are when we score, and we make big plays and all those things."

Not many people have a father as famous as Philip Rivers, so it's hard to put yourself in the children's shoes. Thus, you may be surprised to learn that it was only recently that Halle realized just how much her father means to so many people.

"He's been famous since before I was born," she said. "It's just been normal kind of my whole life. It's all I've known. But once I got older it was like, 'Oh wow, there's a lot of people watching him every Sunday.' I really only realized it the last couple years."

While Philip Rivers has produced countless memories that he and millions of Chargers fans hold dear to their heart, some of his favorite moments on the field come long after the clock strikes zero. After he's showered, changed and handled his media responsibilities, Rivers often still trots back out onto the field to throw the ball around with his kids.

Gunner likes to pretend he's a Charger, making those same exact plays his father's teammates made earlier that day.

"It's really cool when we do that," Gunner said. "Whoever makes that big play, sometimes I try to do the same thing there on the field. If someone has a pick, I try to do the same thing as them."

Like any professional athlete, Rivers' career has been filled with ups and downs. And during those lean years, it was his family that helped put things in perspective.