"On Jan. 20, 2008, Philip Rivers became the undisputed leader of the Chargers. If there had been doubts before then, they ended on a day when global warming somehow missed Foxborough, Mass. The Kid became The Man in the New England chill. The Chargers quarterback was unable to do enough to overcome the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. But few people knew he played without an anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Even fewer knew he had undergone arthroscopic surgery to remove loose cartilage in the joint the previous Monday. Writers have compared what Tiger Woods did with a torn ACL in the U.S. Open to what some football players have gone through, playing through pain. As game as Tiger's effort was, he didn't have 300-pound men after him on every hole. The comparison is ludicrous. Face it. Rivers, the Chargers quarterback of now and the future, shouldn't have suited up. But because he could play through the pain, he did, and he hardly disgraced himself. If a true NFL quarterback was born that day, then perhaps so was an entire football team. The Chargers, if they didn't know already, had found the person to lead them. Nobody seems to understand exactly what makes a leader, but a quarterback without the respect of his teammates might as well lead a search for Atlantis. Rivers doesn't like to speculate on whether he's considered more of a leader now than he was on Jan. 19, but he will. %u201CIt's hard to answer that, but yeah,%u201D Rivers was saying yesterday, as he and a few veterans joined rookies on the team's second day of training camp. %u201CMaybe it (the leadership level) didn't go up. I'm saying this humbly, but maybe it reaffirmed the confidence my teammates had in me. I have great respect for the guys in this locker room. %u201CThat isn't why I played with the knee, to get praise, to have the guys say, 'Philip, you're a tough guy.' A lot of guys were playing tough out there; a lot of guys were playing in pain. I obviously was in discomfort, but what I did was not surreal.%u201D Maybe not, but Rivers lifted himself that day, as the text messages and e-mails he received from his teammates pointed out. Rivers likes to talk. But, after leading his side to eight straight wins %u2013 including two playoff victories %u2013 he probably can say anything he wants. %u201CThe No. 1 goal is to lead,%u201D he says. %u201CI take it as my No. 1 responsibility. A lot of guys can throw and look pretty throwing it. Hopefully, I can do enough to help get us to the top. It takes more than one guy. It takes all of us.%u201D Rivers had surgery on that knee and what followed was some serious, rigorous rehab. And it worked. %u201CI can't tell any difference between my right and left knee right now,%u201D he says. Head coach Norv Turner can't believe what Rivers went through to get the knee ready. %u201CI've never been around anyone who put in more time and work after an injury,%u201D Turner says. %u201CI can't imagine doing what he did coming off s