Philip Rivers came out of retirement, and now the record books suddenly need a scorecard.
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This isn't Nolan Ryan vs. Steve Carlton, as Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio wrote, but it is one of the stranger side plots to emerge from Rivers' unexpected return with the Colts.
Thanks to a big night on Thursday, Matthew Stafford briefly passed him on the NFL's all-time passing list. Briefly being the key word.
Stafford entered the Rams' game sitting eighth in career passing yards. He left it seventh after throwing for 457 yards, pushing his career total to 63,988. That moved him just ahead of Rivers, who sits at 63,560.
The twist? Rivers is active again.
If Rivers throws for 329 yards on Monday night, he jumps right back in front of Stafford and reclaims seventh place. That may sound ambitious, especially considering Rivers managed just 120 yards in his first game back against a Seattle defense that Stafford lit up. But then again, none of this was supposed to be happening in the first place.
Stafford, meanwhile, has bigger fish to fry. With 101 more yards next Monday against Atlanta, he would pass Ben Roethlisberger for sixth on the all-time list.
Unless, of course, Roethlisberger decides to unretire next week.
Which sounded ridiculous two weeks ago. And yet, here we are.
