Talk Smack, Watch Back

Mamba · Sep 12, 2008

Hey, Broncomaniacs. Your team hates San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers almost as much as you do.

If you ask the Broncos, a bark collar should be issued with his Chargers helmet and shoulder pads, as part of the standard uniform for Rivers.

All he does is yap, yap, yap.

"Based on how this league has been, quarterbacks don't talk like that. The Peyton Mannings, the Tom Bradys, they don't do all the jabbering like that," veteran Denver cornerback Dre Bly said Thursday.

An elite NFL quarterback? Rivers has the arm and the guts, but not the class, to be one.

"It rubs guys the wrong way when he comes out there mouthing and with his chest out on the sideline," Bly said.

This dude better watch his back.

At age 26, Rivers has made a list of enemies so long in Colorado it could make Raiders owner Al Davis want to adopt him.

We all saw how Rivers taunted quarterback Jay Cutler on Christmas Eve, when the Chargers rubbed defeat in the faces of dismayed Broncos.

But when mild-mannered Denver cornerback Champ Bailey gets disrespected by Rivers' smack talk, the yappy QB messed with the wrong guy.

"Based on his success and Champ's success in the league, (Rivers) doesn't have the right to be mouthing at the best corner in the game," Bly said.

Last season's verbal confrontation with Bailey was confirmed this week by Rivers, but shrugged off with the aw-shucks personality that tries to fool you into believing he is just a good ol' boy having some fun.

On the telephone, Rivers sounds like Opie from Mayberry. On the field, he acts like Opie gone bad.

"If you can't have a little fun chattering with them, we ought not to be playing," said Rivers, who swears to employ no profanity in his unsportsmanlike act, as if that should keep him immune from having your mother wash his mouth out with soap.

OK, so the NFL era of high-top black cleats and QBs who let their TD passes do the talking is gone forever. In Rivers, maybe a new in-your-face generation has its mouthpiece. He's a son Ann Coulter could love. And it's hard not to admire his spunk, evident when Rivers took the field on one good leg for a playoff game against New England.

But in a league where retribution is never more than a blindside shot away and playing quarterback is such hazardous duty Brady will spend more quality time with Gisele Bündchen than Bill Belichick this autumn, it seems Rivers would learn to keep his piehole covered before he has to eat dinner through a straw.

There is real animosity here between Rivers and the Broncos. This is a feud that feels more like NASCAR, but instead of Kyle and Carl scraping paint at the finish line, we've got the threat of Bad Opie and Champ butting helmets in a wicked collision at the goal line.

San Diego, which has won the AFC West three of the past four seasons, is the team the Broncos want to be when they grow up.

It's fair to wonder, however, if the Chargers might have blown their chance at Super Bowl greatness.

Linebacker Shawne Merriman, his knee in tatters, might never again bring the same force that put the real jolt in San Diego's defense. While Rivers makes noise, the player who makes the offense go is LaDainian Tomlinson, and almost any NFL running back with more than 10,000 yards on his odometer will soon show the wear and tear.

"They have been winning longer than we have," Cutler said. "Some of the young guys here, including myself, are 0-4 against them."

Without question, the Broncos want to shut up Rivers.

But, more important, Denver is four quarters away from destroying the aura of invincibility built on two lopsided victories by the Chargers in 2007.

"They're the guys we need to take down," Bly said.

Soon enough we will find out if the young Broncos have grown up enough to wipe the smirk off Rivers' face and shove the cockiness down his throat.
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Talk Smack, Watch Back

Rivers' trash talk is clean and in the heat of the moment. The way the media has spun it as him talking dirty-mouthed trash talk is bullshit.

Honestly, with this being a rivalry game and with the Broncos hating Rivers, I expect them to come with the intentions of laying some wood on Rivers.

I can't wait to see Rivers shred Denver!

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Talk Smack, Watch Back

Mamba The King is Back Staff Member Global Moderator

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Talk Smack, Watch Back

Mamba The King is Back Staff Member Global Moderator

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