Philip Rivers reveals untold story about why he wore bolo ties with Chargers

It turns out Philip Rivers wasn’t trying to make a fashion statement when he wore bolo ties during his later years with the Chargers.

He was trying to get back at Mike McCoy, his head coach at the time.

“I was just trying to buck the system,” Rivers told brothers Peyton and Eli Manning on ESPN2’s telecast of Monday night’s Rams-Niners game.

Under McCoy’s predecessor, Norv Turner, Rivers said Chargers players had to dress nice on the road. “But he wasn’t real hard on it,” Rivers said. “ ‘Hey, slacks and a collared shirt, you’re good.’

“When McCoy got there (in 2013), he said, ‘Coat and tie, no exceptions.’ And Charlie Whitehurst and I got in the quarterback room and he said, ‘Hey, you ought to go bolo tie. He didn’t say what kind of tie.’

“So that’s where that originated and then it kind of took off from there.”

The kicker is Rivers said his wife Tiffany “hates the bolo tie. I even teased her about it, I said I should go bolo tonight (on TV). She said you’re crazy.”

Rivers, now the head coach at St. Michael Catholic High in Fairhope, Ala., was wearing a red T-shirt with his school name and logo on it.