Remember what happened to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game last year?
After losing Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo to injury earlier in the year, Mr. Irrelevant Brock Purdy stepped in and did an amazing job at QB heading into the NFC title game against the Philadelphia Eagles. But then he got injured, as did journeyman Josh Johnson. Christian McCaffrey had to do it all.
But what if the Niners had won that game. Who would have stepped in for the Super Bowl?
The answer was … Philip Rivers, who never played in a Super Bowl in his solid career.
“He was prepared to,” Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said Thursday. “Now that’s stuff we talked about throughout the whole year. We would’ve had to have seen how that was for the Super Bowl, but that was the plan most of the year.” …
Had the Niners defeated the Eagles and signed Rivers, he would have been playing in the league for the first time since 2020. But joining the Niners in that hypothetical scenario would have given Rivers, 41, his first chance to play in a Super Bowl.
How wild would that have been? A 41-year-old QB who hadn’t played since 2020 would have been signed, suited up with the team for the first time FOR THE SUPER BOWL and could have won one that way.
What a story! Too bad it was just a hypothetical.
Here’s Kyle Shanahan talking today about how he was in discussions all of last season with Philip Rivers — in case of a worst case scenario situation.
Rivers was prepared for the call if he was needed.
pic.twitter.com/NtaswlVWJN https://t.co/OTge71VKGC— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) August 10, 2023
