SAN DIEGO _ Dealt a torn knee ligament, young Philip Rivers departed the AFC Divisional playoff game, which meant he had to walk by hostile Colts fans inside the Indianapolis dome.
Many of the blue-clad faithful, seeing Rivers as low-flying skeet, opened verbal fire with taunts and obscenities as the brash young quarterback came within earshot.
Rivers looked up and volleyed back, while pointing.
In true Rivers fashion, the language suited the Disney Channel.
"Don't you worry," he vowed, "I'll be back."
Eleven years later, the San Diegan makes a return of sorts _ not to Indiana but to New England, where he hasn't appeared in an NFL postseason game since his knee gave out that January.
It's perfect football theater ... almost.
It's perfect that Rivers goes into Sunday's AFC Divisional game with a sturdy right knee, instead of having to press through a torn anterior cruciate ligament as he did 11 years ago in Foxborough, Mass., seven days after his right foot got stuck on the carpet in the Indy dome since razed.
It's perfect that Antonio Gates, still one of Motown's greatest hits, is healed and chugging along, too, and latching onto Rivers' third-down passes.
"Gosh," Rivers said this week, comparing Gates' bum toe to his bum knee in January 2008, "he may have been in worse shape."
It's perfect that Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are the opponents once again, and that Rivers and Gates will walk into the same venue, Gillette Stadium, as they did 11 years ago as young football hipsters.
By golly, if you're finally going to reach a Super Bowl _ or, in this case, get to the semifinals of the Super Bowl tournament _ you ought to have to conquer the Pats in their icebox where Brady has gone 19-3 in the postseason.
Didn't hobbits Frodo and Sam have to brave Mordor to destroy the ring?
"You've got to appreciate it, enjoy it, and do all you can," said Rivers, who rightly described the Pats and their home-field edge as the NFL's top standard for some two decades.
Even with running back Melvin Gordon nursing leg injuries, the squad that Rivers directs is in robust health for January _ a lot better, Rivers noted, than the 2007 club.
The Pats are in excellent winter health, too, and favored on betting lines.
All perfect, this set-up, right down to the frosty football weather.
Well, perfect except for that blue-and-gold pachyderm that even the NFL media machine can't ignore.
The Relocation.
If the Chargers were in San Diego, the whole region, from Baja to Oceanside and east, would be a far more connected world this week. Would be as animated as Rivers after a touchdown pass.
While locals would be risking familiar heartbreak to invest emotion in this franchise _ two of the stoutest Chargers clubs ever, recall, were eliminated by the Pats after the 2006 and 2007 seasons _ the prospects of a breakthrough against big, bad New England would prompt Chargers viewing parties throughout San Diego County.
Rivers can't busy himself with that, of course.
"San Diego will always be special for me, and I know for many of us, and I'm still there," he said Wednesday from the Orange County business park where the team is headquartered.
"You hope that some of those fans can be happy and be excited for the team they've cheered for. And, I know that many others may not (be able to). You know that that's a hard decision and kind of position to be in. But, certainly the people I've run into have always been very supportive."
If there's payback to be had, doesn't San Diego deserve to enjoy it?
Twelve years ago when the Pats came to Mission Valley to face Marty Schottenheimer's No. 1-seeded team, San Diego was as jacked up as Windansea surf after a winter storm.
The Chargers rolled into the Divisional playoff matchup on a 10-game win streak. Along with nine Pro Bowlers and five All-Pro selections, they boasted the NFL's top-scoring offense, the league's top sack total, the 2006 MVP in running back LaDainian Tomlinson and a Pro Bowl kicker in Nate Kaeding.
Though they'd played the AFC's weakest schedule per some metrics, they would've been a heavy favorite in the Super Bowl against the NFC-champion, Rex Grossman-quarterbacked Bears team that would lose by 12 points as a 6{-point underdog against the Colts.
