‘I’m an old-school coach.’ Perry Fewell gets an opportunity, but not in the way he wanted.
In the short term, the Carolina Panthers’ new boss sounds a whole lot like the old boss.
Perry Fewell, who was the Panthers’ secondary coach until Tuesday and will now be the team’s interim head coach for the final four games of 2019, is the same age as Ron Rivera (57). Like Rivera, he comes from a defensive background and had success as an NFL defensive coordinator. He even interviewed for the Panthers’ head-coaching job following the 2010 season before Rivera got the post instead.
When I asked Fewell in his first press conference as the Panthers’ head man Wednesday to describe his coaching style, he said: “I’m an old-school football coach. I get after ‘em. I yell at ‘em. I kick em in the a--, OK? But when they do well, I hug ‘em, and pat ‘em, and love ‘em like I think you should.”
Fewell finds himself in a weird situation now – with a shot that he wanted, at the expense of a man he loved. Not ideal. But he handled his first day well. He changed up a few things in practice the day after Rivera was fired – instituting a contest in which the losing side did calisthenics, which forced the defensive players to do 11 push-ups apiece. He made sure to pay tribute to Rivera (“an amazing man”) while still acknowledging what’s in front of him.
“The NFL is about opportunity,” Fewell said, “and you don’t want to get the opportunity this way. But I am granted the opportunity, and I’ve got to make the most of that while I have this chance.”
Fewell has all sorts of local connections. He’s a member of the Gaston County Hall of Fame. He starred in both football and track at South Point High in Belmont. He played college football at Lenoir-Rhyne. But he said coaching his home state’s NFL team is no different then when he was the Buffalo Bills’ interim head coach for seven games in 2009, going 3-4.
“It really makes no difference because, again, this is a business,” Fewell said. “You’re assigned a task of winning a football game.”
Fewell said he believes he’s ready to lead the Panthers, and he obviously would like to be considered for the permanent job (although owner David Tepper sure sounded like he’s leaning toward an offensive-minded, new-school coach Tuesday). Fewell also said he doesn’t begrudge current general manager Marty Hurney for hiring Rivera instead of him before the 2011 season.
“I know Marty made the right choice,” Fewell said. “During that time, I was probably too young to come back home and take on a task such as this.”
Since then, Fewell was the defensive coordinator on a New York Giants team that upset New England in the Super Bowl, and later a secondary coach for Washington and Jacksonville before joining Carolina for his first season in 2019.
Panthers safety Eric Reid has had Fewell as a position coach all season.
“He has a ton of experience,” Reid said of Fewell. “He’s seen it all. He draws from that experience… Quite often he brings up a memory that he has from a coordinator that he’s seen 10 years ago…. When it’s time to be serious, he’s serious. When it’s time to have fun, he has fun… we call him ‘multiple,’ because he can have multiple attitudes.”
Like the rest of the coaching staff, Fewell was very close to Rivera. He said that besides Rivera’s acumen with Xs and Os, he appreciated the fact that Rivera’s wife Stephanie and daughter Courtney often were around the team at the head coach’s request.
Said Fewell of Rivera: “He taught each and every man in that room how to treat their wives and how to treat their daughters, and how to be men.”
After Fewell was announced as the interim head coach Tuesday shortly after Rivera was told to pack up his things by Tepper, the head coach didn’t leave in a huff. Instead, he spent about an hour with Fewell, going over the team’s practice and travel schedules and telling him other things he would need to know for the final month of the season.
“Emotions are at a premium when that occurs,” Fewell said. “It’s easy for you to slam the door, pack up your things and walk out… But he took care of Panther business, which you know he would do. He’s a first-class guy.”
As for the challenge of following a beloved coach, Fewell said: “We all love Ron. I’m included in that. So I think we’re playing for Coach Rivera in a sense, and we’re playing for ourselves, and the Panther organization and the Panther Nation. But we really want to do this for Coach.”
