.jpg) Rivera in 2022 | |||||||||||
| No. 59 | |||||||||||
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| Position: | Linebacker | ||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
| Born: | January 7, 1962 Fort Ord, California, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||||
| Weight: | 235 lb (107 kg) | ||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||
| High school: | Seaside (Seaside, California) | ||||||||||
| College: | California (1980–1983) | ||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1984 / round: 2 / pick: 44 | ||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||
| As a player: | |||||||||||
| As a coach: | |||||||||||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
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| Head coaching record | |||||||||||
| Regular season: | 102–103–2 (.498) | ||||||||||
| Postseason: | 3–5 (.375) | ||||||||||
| Career: | 105–108–2 (.493) | ||||||||||
| Record at Pro Football Reference | |||||||||||
Ronald Eugene Rivera (born January 7, 1962) is an American former professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played nine seasons as a linebacker for the Chicago Bears and was a member of their 1985 team that won Super Bowl XX. He became a head coach and was twice named the NFL Coach of the Year with the Carolina Panthers.
Rivera played college football California Golden Bears, earning consensus All-American honors in 1983. He was selected by the Chicago Bears in the second round of the 1984 NFL draft. His coaching career began in 1997 when he served as a quality control coach for the Bears. Rivera joined the Philadelphia Eagles as a linebackers coach two years later before rejoining the Bears as their defensive coordinator in 2004. The following year, he was named Assistant Coach of the Year by the PFWA and helped coach linebacker Brian Urlacher into being named Defensive Player of the Year. In 2006, the Bears made an appearance in Super Bowl XLI. In 2007, he joined the San Diego Chargers coaching linebackers before being promoted to defensive coordinator a year later.
After three years with the Chargers, Rivera was hired as head coach for Carolina. He led the Panthers to an appearance in Super Bowl 50 and became their all-time leader in wins. Rivera was fired near the end of the 2019 season due to new owner David Tepper wanting change and became Washington's head coach in 2020. He was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma that same year but was considered cancer free by early 2021. Rivera is the only coach in NFL history to have led a team with a losing record to the playoffs more than once, doing so with Carolina in 2014 and Washington in 2020. He was fired by Washington after the 2023 season and joined ESPN as an analyst.