From grandpa to gridiron: Philip Rivers' inspiring NFL return

The “ Gridiron Grandpa ” thrilled both young and old alike with his return to the NFL 1,800 days after last throwing a touchdown pass.

Philip Rivers nearly helped the injury-riddled Colts (8-6) pull off the upset at Seattle, completing 18 of 27 passes for 120 yards and a touchdown with one sack and an interception in an 18-16 loss to the 11-win Seahawks.

“I was just thankful — grateful — that I was out there,” said Rivers, whose pick came on his final pass as he tried to force the ball down the field in the closing seconds. “And it was a blast — it was a blast — but obviously the emotions now are disappointment. This isn’t about me. We have a team scrapping like crazy to try and stay alive and get into the postseason.”

For much of the NFL, it was all about Rivers, who admitted he wasn't even sure how he'd play coming out of retirement as a Pro Football Hall of Fame semifinalist.

“There is doubt, and it’s real,” Rivers said. “The guaranteed safe bet is to go home or to not go for it, and the other one is, ‘Shoot, let’s see what happens.’ I hope in that sense that can be a positive to some young boys, or young people.”

The high school team that Rivers coaches in his native Alabama, the St. Michael Catholic Cardinals, who finished 13-1 this season, gathered at a local restaurant in Fairhope for a watch party and went wild when Rivers threw a touchdown pass to Josh Downs that put Indianapolis ahead 13-3.

And you can bet plenty of gray-haired football fans were just as thrilled as those teen-agers to see “Old Man Rivers” slinging it again and joining other sports greats who returned from retirement with less hair or more gray, including the likes of Michael Jordan, George Foreman, Mario Lemieux and Magic Johnson.

Rivers definitely has a dad bod, and last week he couldn't even tell reporters what his weight was, only that it was certainly higher than when he walked away after the 2020 season.

For nearly five years, Rivers’ seemingly final touchdown toss was caught by tight end Jack Doyle in Indy’s 27-24 loss to the Buffalo Bills in an AFC wild-card game on Jan. 9, 2021.

The one he threw to Downs on Sunday was Rivers' 438th career touchdown toss, counting the playoffs, and few could have been more thrilling.

Rivers was the butt of plenty of old-man jokes and the subject of innumerable social media memes after the Colts called him out of retirement to try to salvage a once-promising season that's been sabotaged by injuries, including the one to starting quarterback Daniel Jones, whose stirring comeback season ended with a torn Achilles.

Rivers did nothing to embarrass himself Sunday, not even when he slipped down without contact on one drop-back before scrambling to his feet and darting up the middle.

Rivers insisted he enjoyed the few hard hits he took from the Seahawks’ stout defense, saying, “I never minded that part of it. My wife always tells me I’m crazy because there’s been times in the last three or four years I said, ‘I wish I could just throw one and get hit — hard.’”

Tim Hasselbeck, the 47-year-old ex-NFL QB turned ESPN analyst who recently became head football coach at The Ensworth High School in Nashville, was thoroughly impressed by the way Rivers handled himself after just one short week of practice with the Colts.

“That's something that people need to understand, too,” Hasselbeck said on the “Scott Van Pelt Show,” stressing that Rivers risked not just his health but his reputation by returning to the gridiron.

“He's been out of the game for nearly five years. The risk associated with (returning to the NFL): getting hurt, tearing your knee up, blowing out an Achilles — and then more honestly — humiliating yourself by playing," Hasselbeck said. "There were risks associated with what he's doing.”

“I work with colleagues that were just flat wrong," Van Pelt concurred, "that acted like it was embarrassing that this guy was going to go do this. No, it wasn't. They lost by two points to one of the best teams in football.”

Colts coach Shane Steichen on Monday confirmed that Rivers will be the Colts' starter against the San Francisco 49ers (10-4) next Monday night.

If he stays upright and keeps the starting job, it won't get any easier for Rivers, who would have to face the AFC South-leading Jacksonville Jaguars (10-4) on a short Christmas week before a trip to Houston (9-5) to close out the regular season.

Yet, if Rivers can lead them to a couple of wins, the topsy-turvy AFC playoff picture that's missing Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow might very well feature the 44-year-old gridiron grandpa who last won a playoff game in 2018 with the then-San Diego Chargers.

Behind the Call analyzes the biggest decisions in the NFL during the season.

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Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) talks with teammates during the first half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) throws during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) reacts after throwing an interception during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) leaves the field after an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A mass shooting in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach was “a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” Australia’s federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett said Tuesday.

The suspects were a father and son, aged 50 and 24, authorities have said. The older man, whom state officials named as Sajid Akram, was shot dead. His son was being treated at a hospital.

A news conference by political and law enforcement leaders on Tuesday was the first time officials confirmed their beliefs about the suspects' ideologies. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the remarks were based on evidence obtained, including “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.”

There are 25 people still being treated in hospitals after Sunday’s massacre, 10 of them in critical condition. Three of them are patients in a children's hospital.

Also among them is Ahmed al Ahmed, who was captured on video tackling and disarming one assailant, before pointing the man’s weapon at him and then setting it on the ground.

Those killed ranged in age from 10 to 87 years old. They were attending a Hanukkah event at Australia's most famous beach Sunday when the gunshots rang out.

Albanese and the leaders of some of Australia's states have pledged to tighten the country's already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Mass shootings in Australia have since been rare.

Officials divulged more information as public questions and anger grew on the third day following the attack about how the suspects were able to plan and enact it and whether Australian Jews had been sufficiently protected from rising antisemitism.

Albanese announced plans to further restrict access to guns, in part because it emerged the older suspect had amassed his cache of six weapons legally.

“The suspected murderers, callous in how they allegedly coordinated their attack, appeared to have no regard for the age or ableness of their victims,” said Barrett. “It appears the alleged killers were interested only in a quest for a death tally.”

The suspects traveled to the Philippines last month, said Mal Lanyon, the Police Commissioner for New South Wales state. Their reasons for the trip and where in the Philippines they went would be probed by investigators, Lanyon said.

He also confirmed that a vehicle removed from the scene, registered to the younger suspect, contained improvised explosive devices.

“I also confirm that it contained two homemade ISIS flags,” Lanyon said.

The Philippines Bureau of Immigration confirmed Tuesday that Sajid Akram traveled to the country from Nov. 1 to Nov. 28 along with Naveed Akram, 24, giving the city of Davao as their final destination. Australian authorities have not named the younger suspect.

Groups of Muslim separatist militants, including Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines, once expressed support for the Islamic State group and have hosted small numbers of foreign militant combatants from Asia, the Middle East and Europe in the past.

Decades of military offensives, however, have considerably weakened Abu Sayyaf and other such armed groups, and Philippine military and police officials say there has been no recent indication of any foreign militants in the country’s south.

Earlier, Albanese visited al Ahmed in a hospital. Albanese said the 42-year-old Syrian-born fruit shop owner had further surgery scheduled on Wednesday for shotgun wounds to his left shoulder and upper body.

“It was a great honor to met Ahmed al Ahmed. He is a true Australian hero,” Albanese told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with him and his parents.

“We are a brave country. Ahmed al Ahmed represents the best of our country. We will not allow this country to be divided. That is what the terrorists seek. We will unite. We will embrace each other, and we’ll get through this,” Albanese added.

The famous blue-shirted lifeguards of Bondi Beach attracted praise as more stories of their actions during the shooting emerged.

One duty lifeguard, identified by the organization’s Instagram account as Rory Davey, performed an ocean rescue during the shooting after people fled, fully clothed, into the sea.

Another lifeguard, Jackson Doolan, posted to his social media a photo taken as he sprinted, barefoot and clutching a first aid kit, from Tamarama beach a mile away toward Bondi as the massacre continued.

“These guys are community members and it’s not about the surf,” Anthony Caroll, one of the stars of a popular reality television show called “Bondi Rescue,” told Sky News on Tuesday. “They heard the gunshots and they left the beach and came right up the back here into the scene of the crime, into harm’s way while those bullets were being shot.”

Israeli Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon visited the scene of the carnage on Tuesday and was welcomed by Jewish leaders.

“I’m not sure that my vocabulary is rich enough to express how I feel. My heart is torn apart because the Jewish community, the Australians of Jewish faith, the Jewish community is also my community,” Maimon said.

Thousands have visited Bondi from all walks of life since the tragedy to pay their respects and lay flowers on a mounting pile at an impromptu memorial site.

One of the visitors on Tuesday was former Prime Minister John Howard, who was responsible the the 1996 overhaul of gun laws and an associated buyback of newly outlawed weapons.

In the aftermath of Sunday's shooting, a record number of Australians signed up to donate blood. On Monday alone close to 50,000 appointments were booked, more than double the previous record, the national donation organization Lifeblood told The Associated Press.

Almost 1,300 people signed up to donate for the first time. Such was the enthusiasm at Lifeblood’s Bondi location that appointments to give blood were unavailable before Dec. 31, according to the organization’s website.

A total of 7,810 donations of blood, plasma and platelets were made across the country on Monday, spokesperson Cath Stone said. Australian news outlets reported queues of up to four hours at some Sydney donation sites.

Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.

People offer flowers and hugs at a floral memorial during a tribute for victims of Sunday's shooting at the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

British Consul General Louise Cantillon, arrives at a memorial with flowers and a wreath during a tribute for victims of Sunday's shooting at the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

In this photo released by the Prime Minister office, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets Ahmed al Ahmed at St George Hospital in Sydney, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (Australian Prime Minister Office via AP)

Former PM John Howard waves during a flower memorial for victims of Sunday's shooting at the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Rabbi Yossi Friedman speaks to people gathering at a flower memorial by the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, following Sunday's shooting in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)