All right, coach, this is show ,
seasonal. You know, we could do7
or 18 weeks or it could be long.
That's the plan. As long as we can go, OK
How does a kid who was in Germa,
Panama, Washington, DC end up playing
in the National Football League
and then becoming a head coach?
Well, you know, it's been a jou.
It really has you know and
lifelong had a lot to do with
growing up in a military family.
You know my my father being
stationed all over the world,
all over the United States
really helped to to round us,
me and me and my three brothers.
And I think just the love of sps
is what gave me the opportunity.
What created my opportunity
to play collegiately.
Then playing the NFL and then my
love of the game of football gae
me the opportunity to become a
coach and and I guess as they s,
the rest is history.
What age were you here in DC
and where did you live? Oh,
wow. We lived actually in in Maryland.
My dad was stationed at Fort Me,
and that's where I first played.
My first football, was in the sd
grade playing Pee wee football.
Were you big then, too? Oh, yea,
I was. I was on the offensive l,
defensive line, right off the b.
All right, so here's the questi.
You know, everybody knows your career
with the Bears 85 Super Bowl te.
I was doing some research.
I saw the Super Bowl shuffle
and I did not see Ron Rivera.
What does it mean?
I would think you had some rhyt.
What? I don't understand.
Actually, I don't have any rhyt.
My wife will tell you that for .
But the truth is,
there's a group of us that didn't show up.
What happened was they filmed that the day
after we got beat on Monday Night Football.
And what happened was we we flew in and
landed in Chicago around 5:30 in the morning.
Because remember, back then,
Monday Night Football started at 9:00.
Yes. Didn't get over till around 1:00.
By the time you get showered up,
get to the airport,
it's already 3:00 and it's aboua
three and a half hour flight to Chicago.
So we landed sometime 536 O clok
in the morning and they said he,
we're going to do this charity g
blah blah blah and a bunch of gs
showed up and a bunch of us went home,
went to sleep.
If you look at that too and
look at it carefully, Oh yeah,
Mike Singletary, Walter Payton,
William Perry, Jim McMahon,
we're all blue screened in.
They weren't there either.
It's a good it was a good job
by them to blue screen him in.
But you're playing for
a guy named Mike*.
Yes. What was that like?
That was tough, you know,
because it was back in the days when when
you still had two a day's full padding,
you didn't, you didn't have any
limits on the number of guys
that could come to training cam,
and you didn't have any time
with this either.
So you literally, at 6:00 in the morning,
the horn would go off throughout the dorm,
get everybody up.
You would go to breakfast and be
out on the practice field at 8:0
and we would practice all morni,
have a lunch break,
going to meetings and practice l
late afternoon into into about .
You had dinner and then you had
meetings till 11 till till about 10:30.
And then you had bed check at 1.
So it was it was tough.
I learned a lot from coach.
I learned a lot from playing for Buddy Ryan,
Buddy Ryan.
Yeah,
I had a tremendous amount of
teachers in terms of my positiol
coaches as my career went on.
And and probably one of my favos
was Dave McGinnis who coached mt
linebacker when I played for the Bears.
So
my name is Chick.
Your your nickname these
days is Riverboat Ron.
But I hear that Buddy Ryan
had a nickname for you.
Yes, Buddy, call me Chico,
cuz I look like Freddie Prince.
Buddy's favorite buddy's favorie
TV show was Chico and the
Jack Albertson Freddie friends, right?
So what happened was my rookie r
Buddy made me stand back there with him
behind the defense as we watch practice.
And I would sit there and watch
practice with him and he would k
to me about football, about why.
Hey, why do you think we're doing this?
Hey, we're doing this because
we want to stop that.
And he was grooming me to a dege
because I was Mike's backup.
I backed up Singletary at the
middle linebacking position for
most of the Super Bowl year.
And So what happened was that'sw
I kind of learned and developed,
my, my philosophies on on footb.
So you want to be a coach after
those kind of, or did you?
I thought about it and some
I always thought about.
And then really what happened ws
when I first got out of footbal,
I did some radio and TV.
I worked for sports channel Chio
and and WGN came to the dark si.
Yes, I did. I learned a lot,
but I also learned that I missed
the game way too much and I
wanted to get back into it.
And and and my wife Stephanie's
really the one to push me to get
back into football because she wanted
you out of the house, probably.
OK,
so you go to Carolina,
then you come here.
Look, I'm a guy.
This year has been an unbelievable year.
I've had cancer, I've had COVID,
and then I've got this brand new job.
You got diagnosed your first
year here and then decided to
coach while getting treatment.
Did you learn anything about yourself?
I I I learned that I I follow directions.
I do what I'm told.
I try to do what the doctors told me to do.
I try to make sure I I did all those things.
And one of the things that I misunderstood
was that I was supposed to work
that that that I I had to work t
I should not get into the hospil
if and and and and I like I sai,
I just misunderstood the way
it was phrased to me.
And so that's why I pushed
myself without realizing.
And I think I found that
you know if I push myself,
I I I I have pretty good limits.
Sure. And what did you hear from
your players as they watched yoo
through this while coaching the?
I think one of the most amazing things is,
was, was their support.
It really was. And you know,
and it also came at a time when
when Alex Smith was here and he
was making his comeback which
I thought was one of the really
tremendous comebacks and and its
something that was really cool.
And so they got a couple of exas
of guys that really just pushed
themselves through to to to to t
through things And and I think t
really helped our guys and I think it
helped us win that division that year.
You got new ownership here a brand new vibe.
With new ownership though comes I don't
know if it's job insecurity but do you
even think about that at all as far as
what the future holds for Ron Rivera?
No, no, I don't because really t
goes back to the you take it ont
a time and I can only control wI
can control and that's what I'm doing.
So I'm doing the best I can.
I like the things that we're do.
I like where we are as a football team.
I like where we are as an organization.
I I appreciate who Mr.
Harris's and his and his partne.
If there's been one thing that is really
clear cut more so than anything else,
it's just their desire to make
this a first class organization,
their desire to win.
And I think that's important and
it's been very crystal clear
and and very transparent.
So I just appreciate that
and we'll see how it goes.
We're going
to have 18 to 23 weeks together.
I'm going to ask you this one t,
one time only the prior ownersh.
You came into this with one thought and
then as you're going through it, coach,
there was chaos around this organization.
Did that affect your job at all?
Was it difficult to keep
that out of the building?
You know, it was in the buildin.
Well it was hard because you kn,
and I said this about to me,
I said you know you guys bring t
to us and and So what I've tried
to make sure I focus on and try
to get the players to focus on s
let's focus on what's important,
not what's interesting.
And to me what was important was
what we did on the football fie.
I got, you know, I understand hw
serious all the other things were and I
get that part of it and and and again,
I don't want to make light of i.
But my focus as the football coach was to
represent the organization as best as I can.
I could and at the same time we
could get everything we could
straight on the football field.
You brought in Eric Banami whose
reputation is well known as a guy who.
That offense is ridiculous,
talking to the players and wheny
see that playbook the first tim,
they're stunned at what can be.
Did anything surprise you?
You've had, you know,
a couple months with him now and
then it surprised you about him.
Not really. I mean,
I got a pretty good insight into who he was.
I actually was on the coaching f
when we had him in Philadelphia when I
was coaching for Andy Reed back in the day.
So Andy was one of the people I talked about.
I called to talk about Eric and
Andy was tremendous about him.
And then I I called a couple other guys
that was on that were on that coaching staff.
That was with Eric the last five years.
And you know Dave Tobe,
who he and I were roommates at one time when
we when we worked for the Bears and Steve
Spagnola who was on the on the original
Andy Reid staff and asked him about Eric.
They told me you're going
to get this kind of guy.
He's phenomenal.
You know, just so everything that they
told me he's been and then somed
and and I'll say you know, it i,
it it's to me, I do wonder why.
How come he hadn't gotten his chance yet?
Because I I do think he deserves that
opportunity based on what I wat.
You're surprised by the backlash
you got when you talked about h.
I was because again I I didn't
get it because you know,
I I really believe I'm one
of Eric's biggest advocates.
I believe in the things that he does.
He and I talk about him,
you know, and and sometimes I,
you know, I do have questions.
But his answers make sense.
The thing that really caught my attention
with him more so anything else was how
he how he paid attention to det.
He reminded me so much of Coach Reed.
And then the other thing I realy
appreciated was what he said
on his first press conference.
That was we need to learn to be
comfortable and we're uncomfort.
And when he said that,
that really got me thinking
about a lot of things.
And one of the things is that
maybe I've gotten comfortable as
a head coach because for 12 yeas
I had the same type of system,
I had the same type of scheduli.
And in talking to Eric and listo
him talk about scheduling and s,
I thought, you know what, Eric,
one of the things I want you to do is
I want you to handle the schedu.
I want you to look at what you've done
in the past and let's put it together.
So I gave him the parameters.
He came to me with all of his scheduling,
mapped it out.
We went through a bunch of things and I said,
hey,
how about if we did this and how about
if we did that and what about this piece?
And that's been it and he's
done a great job as it.
So I can tell you right now that
as a head coach I can see exacty
where he's going to go as a head
coach because it's it's it is ry
about learning to be comfortable
when you're uncomfortable.
Some of the things that we've d,
we've done in practice.
I did when I was Andy Reid,
but I kind of morphed a little .
We changed them and now going back to it,
I see the other side again.
So it's it's been,
it's been good for me,
it's been good for our football team.
I love the way our players apprh
the games.
I know they're preseason games and I get
that they they really don't mean much
except for the growth and development.
Our football team,
which has been really good,
learning how to finish,
learning how to win games and tt
is one of the things that we tad
about is winning begets winning
before we get to who will
not be on the squad.
You have that awful decision
to make going from 90 to 53.
They're cutting a lot of guys.
What does that process like?
Is there screaming and yelling
from the position coaches? Yeah
there is. And I wouldn't say screaming,
yelling as much as it.
It's a good conversation.
What we did in our process was,
was yesterday I met with the ene
coaching staff and we talked abt
every player at every position, Okay,
then myself and the coordinator.
We went in with Marty and Martin
and their staff on the personnel
side and we went over every posn
and every player and we talked
about where these guys could fi.
And there was some constant, you know,
well moving this and moving that back
and then putting him back up th.
And it went on for a while,
just trying to get to the right spot.
And again,
we wanted to make sure everybody was heard
and that when we made the final decision,
we all felt good about it going
out of that room now, you know,
things are going to change betwn
now and tomorrow when we make te
last set of cuts because you kn,
we'll have to talk about there's some
guys already out on the waiver wires.
And we talked about a couple of positions
that if there's somebody availa,
we have to seriously consider t,
if that person would fit us,
whether it be offense,
defense or special.
One of those guys,
it's out now is Jared Patterson,
local kid, Pilate High School.
Been on the practice squad
last couple of years.
That's a tough one to make.
What do you say?
I just say it was a tremendously tough one.
It really was. It is.
First of all, it's a very good .
You know, we assembled a
good running back room.
We like the guys. We like Jarre.
Part of the reason I did it andI
told Jarrett was to get him out there
now so people know he's out the.
Give him that opportunity that
chance to get out on the on somy
else's roster and you never kno.
I mean if he doesn't and he's still out
there and and our situation chas
and we need a guy I I I don't tk
we'd hesitate to bring him back.
He did a great job here and he's
a young man that proved that he
belongs in the NFL and I hope he
gets another shot and if that st
somewhere else then I'll be very happy.
I really will be very happy form
because he's the right kind of g
man and he deserves the opportu.
All
right each week I'm going to ine
a fan to ask a question okay.
Well, you're Okay with that Oka.
And I'm going to.
I'll be the one to decipher bece
there's some nut balls out ther.
You know who we are.
So here's the first question.
It's from a Sean MI.
Just want you to take a look and listen.
What's up, Coach?
I had one question for you and I
think I know the answer to this.
You've been coaching for a long time, man.
You've been around a lot of pla.
What's the funniest and craziest bunch
of linebackers you've ever coac?
I think I know the answer.
That one. All right, Coach.
Good luck this year.
Kick some*.
He does know that Sean Merriman
was one of my favorites.
Guys that I coach and we have
a guy right now that reminds
me so much and
he and Chase Young could could ,
could be brothers.
I praise because of the
type of young men they are.
They love people. They love football.
They're really all about it.
But that group of linebackers Id
in San Diego was pretty special.
He was he was one of the kingpins of it, man.
You know, just, gosh,
I can see them all right now.
And it was a heck of a group and you know,
one time that group of guys,
we were the number one defense in the NFL.
Can you hear the police coming from me?
I think I just heard that.
Coach, thank you very much.
We'll see you next week
before the first game.
So I'm remembering, of course,
the Maryland Terrapin and one of your guys.
He wishes you good luck and so do we.
I appreciate Chick.