Sports at Lunch, Philip Rivers and Igor Olshansky
Quarterback Philip Rivers and defensive end Igor Olshansky were asked what they thought about their new home, San Diego, as rookies with the Chargers. They were asked what they thought they would be doing in 20 years. They were asked what sport they wish they could play if it they weren’t pro football players.
Rivers, the Chargers’ first-round draft pick from North Carolina State, and Olshansky, the Bolts’ second-round choice from Oregon, spoke at the San Diego Hall of Champions Sports at Lunch Speaker Series on Nov. 9, took turns handing the microphone back and forth as they answered the luncheon guests’ questions.
“The first thing I noticed when I got to San Diego is the team, the organization and the town were all hungry to win,” Rivers said of his first impressions of San Diego and his new team. “All the players who were new from the draft, free agency and trades all wanted to win. Coach (Marty) Schottenheimer is the all-time active winningest coach, so he knows how to win. When I saw a bunch of young guys and veterans who are hungry, I was excited that something was about to get going here.”
“I look around this place, and hopefully I’ll be blessed enough to have my picture up here,” said Olshansky, mentioning the Breitbard Hall-of-Fame plaques than include, among many, fellow Chargers, Oregon and San Francisco St. Ignatius High alum Dan Fouts. “That would be a great honor.”
Adding a little lineman’s humor, he said, “Hopefully I’m living with manageable pain. Maybe I’ll try coaching. Hopefully I’ll have enough money to take care of my family.”
As for other sports, Rivers said if it wasn’t for football he probably would have been a lower level Division I basketball player.
“I’m not good enough to play anything else professionally,” he said. “I played basketball in high school and probably would have been a shooting guard in college. I can’t jump or run fast, but if you left me open I’d hit the shot.”
Olshansky, showing a little reflection as an immigrant from the Ukraine, where he didn’t know about American football, said he wishes he could play pro basketball but recognizes “I was born to play football.”
“I’ve learned so much about football in a short period of time,” said Olshansky, who didn’t play football until his junior year in high school, three years after arrving in the Bay Area from the Ukraine. “There hasn’t been a sport I’ve tried that I haven’t been pretty good at. I’ve done tack and field and wrestled. Things come naturally to me, but football is something I was born to play. It allows me to best use my talent. To be a professional basketball player with my 300-pound body, I would need to be 7 feet, but I’m only 6-5.”
Rivers spoke just a couple of days after his first playing time of the year as Drew Brees’ backup. With the Chargers comfortably in control of a 43-17 win over New Orleans on Nov. 7, Rivers ran the Chargers’ last series of the game. He didn’t throw a pass and he took a knew for the last three downs to run out the clock.
“I got a few snaps, and it was good to be out there,” Rivers said. “Coach Cam (offensive coordinator Cam Cameron) kidded me, telling me to ‘make sure you ice that knee.’ It’s a little different not playing, but I working in practice, working with Drew, Doug (Flutie) and Cleo (Lemon), and I feel I’m getting better every week “
Olshansky talked about facing talent every week as opposed to college when some weeks a physical NFL prospect such as himself faced a mismatch across the line of scrimmage.
“The running back each team has is a great runner, and that makes a huge difference,” Olshansky said. “The speed of the game hasn’t been so much of a problem for me. The other difference I notice is the holding. You could call holding on ever play. Sometimes I wonder what the linesman (game official) is looking at. But that’s not to say if I was an offensive lineman I wouldn’t be holding.”
What other questions did Rivers and Olshansky answer? You should have been at the Hall of Champions Sports at Lunch Speaker Series.
