Chargers relying on Rivers to maintain confidence

	Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers completed 61.7 percent of his passes and threw 22 touchdowns and just nine interceptions this season. Robert Beck/SI
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SAN DIEGO -- It had been a hell of a week, what with the sleep deprivation and the sick kids and the Grand Slam of Laptop Disasters. So when a kind Pro Bowl player offered me a cold, malted beverage in the middle of the Chargers' locker room during happy hour Thursday evening -- well, who was I to turn it down?

A game of Spades was raging on a table near the locker of San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers, a regular participant who had ceded his seat opposite his usual partner, All-Pro tight end Antonio Gates, to veteran wideout Keenan McCardell.

As the duo battled cornerback Drayton Florence and nose tackle Jamal Williams for what I assumed to be bragging rights (because, after all, a pro athlete would never place a monetary wager on such a contest), Lorenzo Neal -- the league's best fullback and the man who essentially runs the Chargers' locker room -- recalled a story about Rivers, the team's first-year starting quarterback, that provoked so much laughter it temporarily halted the card game.

"It was one of our home games earlier this year, I think against the Rams," Neal said. "Phil gets flushed out of the pocket and throws it away, and they drop a flag for intentional grounding. So Phil goes to argue it, because the rule is if you're outside the tackle box you can get rid of it without a penalty.

"Eventually, the ref realizes his mistake and corrects the call. And Phil says, "Goll--eee ref, help me out. I've got to call the play, get everyone lined up right and handle the snap count. Now you want me to do your job?'"

Rivers started to blush, then cracked up along with everyone else. "You forgot the best part," Rivers added. "I went like this" -- he crossed his arms and assumed a pouty pose" and said, 'I can't do it all.'"

The moral of the story -- beside the fact that a PR assistant (Scott Yoffe, who, at the behest of a veteran player, shows up in the locker room five minutes later with a six-pack) instantly vaulted into the upper echelon of candidates for my first annual Media Relations Person of the Year award -- is that there will be more than one cocksure quarterback competing in Sunday's divisional playoff game between the Patriots and Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium.

Much has been made, justifiably, of the fact that Pats coach Bill Belichick, when he's not busy conjuring ways to shove photographers, is likely to devise a game plan that might mess with the 25-year-old Rivers. After all, Belichick has confounded Peyton Manning on multiple occasions, especially in the playoffs. And Rivers, despite a maiden campaign good enough to land him in the Pro Bowl (ahead of the great Tom Brady), did start to struggle down the stretch.