After Sunday’s win over the Raiders, Chargers tight end Antonio Gates said quarterback Philip Rivers has been playing with “a very severe rib injury.” The next day, coach Mike McCoy said Rivers hasn’t missed time or received treatment for any injury.
Then, Gates said that his comments were taken out of context, which would be accurate only if Gates had said something like, “Rivers has been playing with a very severe rib injury that he doesn’t have.”
Regardless, the Chargers have now listed Chargers as having a chest injury in advance of Sunday’s game against the Rams. He fully participated in practice with the condition.
The truth could be that Rivers didn’t disclose the injury to the team. If he received no treatment for the injury and if he missed no practice time, the team would be able to claim that it didn’t know about the injury.
Regardless, the team now admits Rivers has an injury. But this is a guy who has played with a torn ACL; a chest injury or a very severe rib injury or something in between won’t keep him from playing.
