Monday night mouthiness creates a flap in Denver

SEAN HAFFEY
/ Union-Tribune

Chargers QB Philip Rivers has been known to occasionally open his mouth during games.

Philip Rivers got the Denver Broncos bucking mad, and he doesn't really understand why.

“I don't know what the big deal is,” the Chargers quarterback said yesterday.

Two days after the Chargers beat them, the Broncos were still talking about Rivers and his mouth.

“I don't really care for the guy, first of all,” Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey told the Rocky Mountain News yesterday. “He's not a respectable guy right now, because you talk too much trash and do this and that, but you're really not a great player in this league right now. You're surrounded by great players, but you're not a great player.

“I think he needs to understand where he stands in this league – on his team first and foremost. They've got a lot of classy guys on that team. He kind of represents the classless guy on that team. He's definitely lost my respect.”

Even before Monday night's game Bailey told ESPN he didn't like Rivers because of how much Rivers talks.

In fact, someone told Rivers about the ESPN report during the game and he asked Bailey on the field, “Champ, what's up? I thought we were tight.”

Rivers talks almost constantly on the field. He considers it part of the game and loves getting into exchanges with opponents.

“I talked no more in that game than any game in my life,” he said. “ . . . We get after our guys more in practice than in that game.”

Bailey and other Broncos spoke yesterday in response to questions about Rivers being caught on camera yelling toward the Broncos during the fourth quarter, long after he had been taken out of the game in the 23-3 rout.

After a failed fourth-down pass by Jay Cutler, Rivers was shown going a few steps onto the field to greet linebackers Shaun Phillips and Matt Wilhelm. While doing so, he was looking toward the Broncos.

“We get a fourth-down stop,” Rivers recalled yesterday. “I'm not in the game anymore, so I'm way into the defense more than I normally am. . . . Matt Wilhelm and Shaun Phillips, those guys have been jawing the whole game with them. We get a good stop. They are jawing. I'm not anywhere involved. I come out to congratulate them on the stop, and while I'm out there, yeah, there is some eye contact, but I'm saying, 'Atta baby' to Matt Wilhelm and Shaun Phillips. Sure there is eye contact. Maybe there is a smirk. But I am speaking to my guys.”

Cutler could be seen at midfield looking in their direction, and Phillips said yesterday that it was Cutler who started the talking.

“It's funny,” Phillips said. “Philip walked out and told us not to say anything, that we're winning. And Cutler is yelling. . . . Cutler does a lot of talking. I thought it was funny they were talking and losing.”

Phillips said in the fourth quarter Cutler was “just letting us know he wasn't a punk. I respect that. He was letting us know he'd see us next time.”

In the exchange, Wilhelm was seen waving good-bye to the Broncos, and Phillips was pointing at the scoreboard.

But there was immediate reaction from the television commentators and in the ensuing days from fans about how the behavior was unbecoming for Rivers.

Rivers has heard the talk for more than a year that he gets too riled up during games. He has long maintained it's simply how he plays and that it even helps him.

“I'm not going to change,” he said. “ . . . I'm not saying I'm trying to be the guy who goes nuts and acts crazy. That's not who I am. But the thing is there are no bad intentions. It's all in fun.”

Other Chargers defended Rivers.

“What they've got to understand is Philip is a football player,” tight end Antonio Gates said. “If they put him in that category it wouldn't be a problem. But since he's a quarterback, quarterbacks stereotypically shouldn't say or do or act a certain kind of way on the field.

“That's the thing that's not known about him. We know him as a person. He does it in the locker room, in practice, on the field. He plays the game with his heart. That's why he's that way.”

Rivers also explained yesterday another time he was caught talking by ESPN's cameras on Monday. Rivers said after a play in which Broncos linebacker Jamie Winborn had gotten past fullback Andrew Pinnock, Winborn came near the Chargers sideline and yelled, “Where's Lo Neal?”

Rivers said he yelled back, “The ball is over there,” and then yelled to Winborn, “You're glad he ain't playing.”

Cutler said yesterday the Broncos had discussed Rivers' antics.

“It's an unfortunate situation,” he said. “They talk a lot of stuff. It got heated between the two teams. Personally, I don't think the teams like each other, which is fine. It's just going to add to it later next year and the year after that. It should be exciting.”

Of all the teams to question what Rivers has done, Denver seems an odd antagonist.

In four career starts against the Broncos, Rivers has a 119.8 passer rating, and the Chargers have won all four by an average of 39-13. In those games, he has completed 69.6 of his passes for 960 yards and seven touchdowns with two interceptions.

“I understand some of the frustration is they've lost four in a row to this team,” Rivers said. “People don't like losing four in a row.”