Panthers coach Ron Rivera: Former teammate ‘entitled to opinion’ about Cam Newton

Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera said he heard his former Chicago Bears teammate’s comments on Cam Newton but didn’t seem too riled up about them on Tuesday.

Richard Dent, the Hall of Fame defensive end and Super Bowl XX MVP with the 1985 Bears, told USA Today recently that Newton’s dancing and celebrations are a sign of disrespect that he wouldn’t tolerate if he still played.

“I’m going to knock your (butt) out of the game,” Dent said. “That would have been my approach.

“At some point in the game – not with a cheap shot – I’m going to try to get a shot that puts you out for the day. That’s the risk when you want to showboat all the time.”

There was a hint of irony in Dent’s comments, since he and several of his teammates starred in one of the biggest showboating productions in NFL history. The ’85 Bears created the music video “Super Bowl Shuffle,” and the song was released three months before the Bears won the Super Bowl.

“I think that’s fine. Richard’s a Hall of Famer. He’s entitled to his opinion,” Rivera said Tuesday with a smile. “I heard Dick Butkus say some things too. Everybody’s entitled to opinion. And you just go from there. You formulate your own.

“As I said, the hard part, the thing I’ve missed somewhere along (the way), it’s no longer important to befriend a child going through cancer. It’s not enough to go out and play Santa Claus and go to a high school and give money away to a school. It’s not enough. That’s unfortunate that we’ve gotten past that.

“I thought that’s how we wanted to judge our athletes as good people but that’s not enough for us, I guess.”

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Panthers coach Ron Rivera: Former teammate ‘entitled to opinion’ about Cam Newton."