This should not be happening.

It is sad almost to the point of being sadistic, even if the guy it is happening to doesn’t think so.

Philip Rivers showed faith, and it has not been rewarded. His faith remains.

Three months after committing to be a one-team man for his entire career, Rivers is wasting away on that team. He is a good quarterback being held back from greatness. He is finding out why we maybe just can’t have nice things in San Diego.


Perhaps never before has a better quarterback been squandered as egregiously as what is happening here now.

This is not merely an opinion. It is an assertion supported by staggering data.

In 46 years since the NFL-AFL merger, 236 teams have been 2-7 or worse nine games into a season. The 2015 Chargers are one of those teams.

Rivers has a 100.7 quarterback rating this season. The quarterbacks on the other 235 dreadful teams averaged a 61.5 rating.


That’s more than a 40-point difference, in case the combination of shock and mathematics was too confounding. Just three other quarterbacks on those other 235 teams started all nine games and had a rating over 90.0.

Only Jeff Garcia of the 2000 San Francisco 49ers had a higher quarterback rating on a team this bad. On those 2-7 49ers, Garcia was throwing to a still-fantastic Jerry Rice and an entering-his-prime Terrell Owens, and Garcia was backed by a running back (Charlie Garner) who would gain more than 1,100 yards.

Too, that was Garcia’s best statistical season. He finished 2000 with a 97.6 rating (10 points above his career average) and exceeded 4,000 yards for the only time in his 10-year career. Rivers’ career rating is 96.1, and he’s well on his way to his seventh 4,000-yard season.

But let’s not get bogged down in a Garcia-Rivers deliberation. We are, after all, talking about QBs on 2-7 teams.


“First of all, I want to make sure it’s known I accept responsibility for some of being 2-7,” Rivers said Wednesday. “I want to make sure I acknowledge that, gosh, there are plays in these games that are close where maybe you’re a little banged up, maybe you’re a little young, well, then make a play for us. I accept that responsibility. That’s why I’m sick after these games. Y’know, yeah, I had a good game. But, gosh, make another play and you can help win the game.”

Gosh is right. It is impossible to not love that, want more for a man who talks that way with a sincerity as hot as the sun.

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So much of what Rivers said was indicative of why he is the leader he is, why he is the Chargers’ greatest hope that they won’t stink every year. And that is super.


But I call bull. Not on Rivers, so much, as on the position he’s in.

He is playing as well as ever, maybe better than ever. But time does not stand still. He has four years left on his contract, after which he will be 38 years old. With the way things have gone in recent years —all years? —it’s a lot easier to see his career bleeding out than to see him standing in the middle of falling confetti.

What a waste.

What a joke.


Rivers is a championship quarterback.

I’ve said this before. If I have to say it again, well, some people making decisions for this team need to be working somewhere else — like selling insurance.

Fix this, Tom Telesco, John Spanos, et al.

You must.


I asked Rivers if he ever regretted even a little bit signing a four-year extension this summer. “No” was the implicit answer.

“The re-signing thing is two-fold,” he said. “It’s thankfulness for the commitment and wanting to finish here. And I want to finish it the right way. Thankfully, I’m going to have outlasted a whole wave of players. It’s (Jason) Verrett and Keenan (Allen) … Who is the new core. Is it Manti (Te’o)? It’s me believing those guys are going to become that and you believe in the guys upstairs that are going to continue to try to build this thing and make it go.”

Rivers at one point paused as he was listing players and said, “I don’t want to leave young guys out who are going to become core guys.” But rest assured, he need not bother racking his brain because he already named most of the potential impact players.

To break the awkward silence that ensued, I told Rivers that several people — fans, players, coaches and others around the NFL — had expressed the sentiment that they were most sorry for him when they watched the Chargers struggle this season.


“They shouldn’t feel bad for me,” he said. “I’ve got the best family in the world, and I get to come here and stinking try to lead an NFL football team.”

To avoid another weird moment, I refrained from telling him he’s no longer leading an NFL-caliber team. He wouldn’t like that. He won’t put down a teammate.

Sure, he sometimes looks around a huddle and wonders how it got to this point, but he has an inspiring and infuriating ability to envision a sand castle in a pile of dung.

“We’re going to do it,” he said of his thought going into every game, entering every offensive series. “I care about the people in there. I like the people. It’s, ‘All right, who we got? Let’s go.’ ”


I’m angry. I sometimes wish Rivers were angrier about this injustice. But he sees potential where we see pitiful.

“We’re not that far off,’ he said. “I know it sounds crazy. But we just need a few pieces here and there and then these young guys become the core group that sets the tone in the building, we can turn this around.”

If mostly because of him, they have to.

kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com