From Sports Illustrated:Philip Rivers drives a Ford pickup truck with a custom-made bumper sticker on the back window that reads, THEY'LL WALK IF YOU LET 'EM. It was a message that former Chargers linebacker Carlos Polk (former Husker) used to shout at the end of long practices on hot summer afternoons when he knew that some players might be tempted to loll through the final special teams drills.
Rivers became so taken with the saying that he logged on to makestickers.com early this season and had it printed up. Standing in the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot last Saturday night after the Chargers' 23--17 wild-card defeat of the Colts in overtime, Rivers said, "That bumper sticker has meant different things to me at different times. But right now it makes me think about when we were 4--8, and we could have walked the rest of the way. We didn't let each other walk."
The Chargers made that choice as a group on Nov. 30, after they'd lost to the Atlanta Falcons at home to fall to 4--8. When coach Norv Turner finished addressing the team, running back LaDainian Tomlinson stepped to the middle of the locker room. "We're not going to quit," he said. "We're not the Raiders."
