Ron Rivera: podcast appearances and interviews

Ron Rivera is an American football executive, analyst, and former player and coach. He played nine seasons as a linebacker in the National Football League for the Chicago Bears, and was part of their Super Bowl XX winning team in 1985. Rivera played college football for the California Golden Bears, earning consensus All-American honors in 1983, before being selected in the second round of the 1984 NFL draft. He began his coaching career in 1997 as the defensive quality control coach for the Bears and later served as a linebackers coach for the Philadelphia Eagles. Rivera returned to the Bears as their defensive coordinator in 2004, earning the PFWA Assistant Coach of the Year award in 2005 and helping linebacker Brian Urlacher achieve Defensive Player of the Year honors. He subsequently joined the San Diego Chargers as linebackers coach in 2007 and was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2008. Rivera was named head coach of the Carolina Panthers in 2011, guiding the team to an appearance in Super Bowl 50, and became their all-time leader in wins. He was fired from the Panthers near the end of the 2019 season and became the head coach of the Washington Football Team, later known as the Washington Commanders, in 2020. That same year, Rivera was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma but was declared cancer-free by early 2021. Notably, he is the only NFL coach to lead a team with a losing record to the playoffs more than once. After his tenure with Washington concluded in 2023, Rivera worked as an NFL analyst and in 2025 rejoined the University of California–Berkeley as an administrator.