‘As bad a day I’ve been a part of in the NFL.’ Panthers players react to Rivera’s firing.
A lot was said at Bank of America Stadium Wednesday.
Ron Rivera spoke about his nine seasons as the coach of the Panthers and of the future. Interim head coach Perry Fewell shared his thoughts on leading the team forward for the next four weeks.
But it was what came from the players filling the locker room that described exactly what type of man led Carolina for so many seasons and through the ups and downs that came along.
Many players talked and shared remarks about the coach who did so much for the Panthers, but rarely did their comments ever have anything to do with football. Instead, their words focused on losing Rivera as a man, a role model.
“This is as bad a day I’ve been a part of in the NFL,” tight end Greg Olsen said. “To have him come say his goodbye after nine years of a lot of great moments we shared together, football and non-football related, is terrible.
“Ron means a lot to a lot of guys in here for a lot of things outside of football. The biggest thing you hear from guys today, current players, former players, guys who played for him at different organizations, I think the biggest consistent narrative is how much he meant to guys, aside from just the fact that he was their football coach. I think Ron hopefully walked out of here with his head held high that he impacted a lot of people’s lives. You’re never going to find a person that’s come across him that’s going to say one negative thing about him. And that’s rare in this world.”
Some Panthers players have known Rivera for a short time; some have known him for his entire nine-year tenure.
Olsen (along with quarterback Cam Newton and long snapper J.J. Jansen) is one of three remaining players from Rivera’s original 2011 Panthers team.
His memories and anecdotes shared were not about the team’s Super Bowl run in 2015 or winning three straight NFC South titles. But instead what Rivera did when Olsen’s son T.J. was born with a congenital heart disease.
“Last night I was texting with (Rivera) and I just ended up scrolling through some of my text messages,” Olsen said. “At the top, some of the first 20 texts I ever got from him back in 2012, not one had to do with anything other than asking how my family was doing. ‘Don’t rush back, take care of your family, be there for Kara, be there for your kids, be here when you have to, no rush.’ I mean I can go down the list. Days and days and days of him not caring one thing about me as a football player, not asking me when I’d be back, just asking about me as a dad, as a person and that stayed true for nine years.”
Panthers players feel responsible for Rivera’s firing
Olsen was one of two players Rivera pointed to as a man of “tremendous character” during his closing press conference. The other was Eric Reid. While the safety has only been in Carolina for two seasons, the impact Rivera has had on him has been significant.
“For Ron, to see that and to acknowledge a change in his mindset, because he told me openly when we met that he didn’t understand and he was against what I was doing (kneeling during the national anthem),” Reid said. “But after speaking to me and doing some research of his own, he changed his mind and supported it…. It does speak to his personality, that he’s not close-minded. He is who he says he is…. One of the few genuine people you meet in this business who runs teams.”
Many in the locker room felt that Rivera losing his job was partly on the players and they were left thinking that they could have done more. Carolina is currently 5-7 and has lost four straight games. The team is without multiple starters due to season-ending injuries. Those who remain are left pointing fingers at themselves, right or wrong.
Would a missed tackle or getting one or two extra yards near the goal line have saved Rivera’s job in the long haul? It’s unclear.
“The hardest thing for players and guys who have been around a long time is anytime there’s change your first instinct is you let them down. You just play back so many things that could have gone different, what fire could you have put out, what play could you have made, what could have gone different to make this not be the case, it’s just hard,” Olsen said.
“On a personal level I think that’s the hardest thing to swallow in all this, to feel like you failed a guy who put a lot of trust, a lot of faith in you.”
Running back Christian McCaffrey agreed. “I wish I could have done more, I think I speak for everybody when I say I wish we could have won some games for him.”
Rivera’s culture will continue
While losing a head coach is hard, it’s something Gerald McCoy has gotten used to. Rivera is the sixth coach that has been fired on a team he’s been on , after spending the previous nine years of his career in Tampa Bay.
For McCoy, who spent the previous nine years of his career in Tampa Bay, much of the allure of choosing the Panthers as his new team this offseason was a chance to work with Rivera, someone he had been a fan of for a long time prior to joining the Panthers. Having that person leave is incredibly hard.
“(He’s) one of the main reasons why I came here,” McCoy said. “A lot of people say, ‘but Gerald you just got here. You don’t understand.’ I’ve been through six coaching changes now, so I do understand going through a coaching change, but being a fan of him, that’s what makes it tough, because you’re a fan of the guy and then you play for him, makes it even better and then for something like this to happen, it just sucks to have to experience it.”
The stories of Rivera off the field, asking his players about their personal lives and families, could go on and on. From DJ Moore giving Rivera a picture of his newborn baby daughter this past week to the coach asking McCaffrey about his family more frequently than they talked football throughout their three years together.
But it was safety Tre Boston, the ever positive presence in the Panthers locker room, that gave the reminder that while Rivera may be gone, the culture he created will endure. And that’s got nothing to do with football.
“This culture that we have in here it’s not by mistake. Other places we’ve tried to duplicate this culture, but it doesn’t come as easy as what we have here,” Boston said. “The culture’s not dead here… I think there’s a few changes that we’ll make and we’ll be back to the Carolina Panthers that we’re used to, and we’ll thank Ron for that.”
Among so much more.
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 8:16 PM.
