Philip Rivers said it’s unrealistic to avoid scoreboard watching. But the Colts aren’t going to help Rivers or his teammates keep up with what’s going on in other games.
The Colts do not plan to post scores of games involving the Ravens, Browns, Dolphins and Titans to avoid any possible distractions for players or coaches during their game against Jacksonville.
The Colts need a victory and a loss by one of those four teams to make the playoffs.
Baltimore, Cleveland and Miami play at 1 p.m. ET. The Colts’ and Titans’ games are at 4:25 p.m. ET.
“Maybe not to all guys, but if it’s a distraction to one guy, that’s one guy too many,” Colts coach Frank Reich said, via Mike Wells of ESPN. “It’s better not to have them up there. It’s irrelevant. It can do nothing to add to what we have to focus on. It only has a potential negative effect in our view.”
Rivers already admitted he will look at scores of the early games.
“My normal mode when we play the 4 o’clock game, I kind of flip through the Sunday Ticket on my phone. So to say I won’t be doing that will be a lie,” Rivers said. “I won’t be consumed with it, but I’ll be aware. To try to pretend like you’re not going to know the outcome of those games is probably unrealistic. But I don’t think it needs to consume our locker room. Go through normal routine. If your normal routine is checking on 1 o’clock games, I don’t know why you will change that to act like you’re not interested.”