"Today we walk hallowed ground, onto consecrated property heretofore reserved for Air Coryell's hangar. It almost seems sacrilegious to explore this subject, especially in San Diego, but the time is right to ask the question: Is Philip Rivers a better quarterback than Dan Fouts?

The answer is yes.

Rivers never has won anything and Fouts is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but if you can get past the cloud of Don Coryell pixie dust, then you know Fouts never won anything either.

It's risky and often unfair to compare eras — a New York poll laughingly has Derek Jeter the No.?2 Yankee of all time behind Babe Ruth — but in this case I've seen both Chargers QBs play live, covered them both. Rivers is better, and I'm not taking anything away from Fouts.

Rivers is No.?1 because I believe he is, even though I never thought I'd be saying it.

Rivers has enough of a body of work to compare. His performance last year under almost unimaginable conditions for an NFL quarterback did it for me. How many quarterbacks in history could have squeezed nine wins out of that mess?

Due to 2010's remarkable injury pandemic at wide receiver, Rivers completed 357 of 541 passes, for 4,710 yards (tops in The League) and 30 touchdowns against 13 interceptions in real games to the likes of Seyi Ajirotutu, Kelley Washington, Kory Sperry, Richard Goodman and Gary Banks — a few of whom he'd just met during the week.

All in all, Rivers completed passes to an astounding 17 different receivers, with his two best, Antonio Gates and Vincent Jackson, missing great chunks of time.

"He played with all these different guys and the first half of the season we put ourselves in such a negative situation, but Philip always fought to get out," head coach Norv Turner says. "I don't know if any one quarterback has been in a more unique situation. It starts with the quarterback's mindset. He trusted the new receivers and he made guys better. And he kept mistakes to a minimum."

Rivers had complete control of the situation and he never let it rattle him."