Philip Rivers‘ compromise came in the form of an SUV he calls “a mobile office.” Really, though, it’s a film room on wheels, with two plush leather seats facing a 40-inch screen. The souped-up vehicle was reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune to be worth some $200,000 and includes satellite TV, wi-fi and a refrigerator — and occasionally another passenger.
When the Chargers moved to Los Angeles, Rivers opted to stay at his home of nearly 13 years in San Diego and commute about 90 minutes each way. His family considered moving. He considered staying and driving his everyday vehicle.
“Then talked about going with the route we ended up choosing, which is kind of this mobile office,” he said. “At the end of the day, you do all the pluses and minuses and weighing all of them and this one heavily outweighed the rest of them. I know it’s early in the season, but we’ve done it now for about a week-and-a-half and I’m excited and thankful the way it’s going to work out. It certainly allows me to get the best of both. I don’t shorten preparation in the slightest — maybe even get more of it — and I can do what’s best for my family.
“I’m trying to do everything exactly as if I was still going to the same place I had been going,” he said. “The good thing is it doesn’t take 22 minutes before I can get in the QB room. I can get in it right in the driveway.”
For the past week-and-a-half, Rivers has made the trek as efficient as possible, leaving his house a little before 6 a.m. each morning to study up on the Broncos while on Interstate 5 before reaching his real office.
This wasn’t what he anticipated when the idea first came to mind.
“I first thought, ‘Hey, I’ll just take our family’s Sprinter van, throw a TV in it and plug in my computer and I’ll be good to go,” he said laughing. The first comment I got from my wife was, ‘Then what are we going to drive?’ So then I just started exploring and figured, you know what, if I’m going to do this thing I might as well do it right because who knows if it’s going to be something you do for a year or two years, three years — you never know. You’re a little bit going out on a limb with the whole idea. So we did it right. I didn’t realize how popular it was, especially in these big cities like L.A. In L.A., it seems to be pretty prevalent as far as guys using things like this.”
The new ride has also made him more popular, too.
“I don’t know if it’s a positive or negative, there’s just two seats there,” he said. “My children are the ones that are signing up on the sign-up sheet for me to take them around.”
