Rodrigue on the state of the team...

[Mr. Scot]

...including this summary of how Ron Rivera sees veteran players.

Quote

Like many in the NFL, Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera did not get to finish his playing career on his own terms.

He was, he says, a “cap casualty” as a nine-year veteran linebacker for the Chicago Bears. He, and a lot of his teammates and close friends, all lost their jobs.

“In 1993, they passed a whole new (collective bargaining agreement),” he said. “There were a group of us who were caught up in the middle of it. That was the first time there was a salary cap. ... It was the changing point in the NFL at the time. For what they were paying me, they could have signed three rookies, (which is) the nature of the game, now.”

So a player getting to end his career on his own terms, well, that’s something that really matters to Rivera.

“It’s a big deal for me,” he said this week. “And one of the things I talk about with guys is not wasting opportunities, more so than anything else. I think that it’s really important that guys understand that you only get so many chances at playing this game. And while you’re playing it, you gotta give it everything you have.”

The desire to give everybody a graceful exit could be at least a small part of the reason why Rivera, over the years, has been well-regarded as a “player’s coach” and has, mostly successfully, kept a locker room full of able-bodied, respected veteran players.

And Rivera said he wishes he could keep all of them around.

Changes you will and won't see next season

Makes a lotta sense, doesn't it?

[Ivan The Awesome]

I used to actually care about players coaches. I like Rivera a lot. Don't get me wrong. But the time for this players coach thing has come to an end. The most successful franchise in the past decade has been the New England Patriots. Does Bill Belichik strike anyone as a players coach? I just want to win. But Rivera has shown me that loyalty above all else is more important to him. 

[Little Goody Two Shoes]

Hey Ron, your job is to win, not give players a 'graceful exit'. I know it's a tough 'business' but they are compensated well.

[davos]

6 minutes ago, Ivan The Awesome said:

I used to actually care about players coaches. I like Rivera a lot. Don't get me wrong. But the time for this players coach thing has come to an end. The most successful franchise in the past decade has been the New England Patriots. Does Bill Belichik strike anyone as a players coach? I just want to win. But Rivera has shown me that loyalty above all else is more important to him. 

He wants to be the Remember the Titans team more than a modern NFL just. It's great they're like a family and all and that we're respected for it league wide but the results are inconsistent and not producing lately.

[Waldo]

I'm ready to move on from him and his philosophies. It was nice and I wanted it to work, but it doesn't. Just like in real life...

[Camp Fodder]

For a team that may potentially lose 8 straight games there is not a lot of changes suggested in the artcle

[Jeremy Igo]

Winning is a big deal for me.

[Paa Langfart]

This is maddening.  If you put 2 and 2 together here you come up with the fact that Rivera would rather keep a mediocre vet around than play the guys he knows are better.  If this doesn't get his ass fired by Tepper I don't know what will.

[MHS831]

Few athletes--if any--leave on their own terms.  You are filtered through a process of elimination called "competition."  You get beat out, age out, carried out, or kicked out---

Moonlight Graham when reflecting on his day in the major leagues in FIELD OF DREAMS said, "I always thought there would be other days.  Little did I know, that was the only day."

At least he had that.

I had 2 shoulder surgeries and was a sophomore TE in college, going through spring practice.  I got called into the training room one day and the team doctor, my position coach, and the trainer were in there with a folder.   They had XRays.  I would need another surgery that would end my career.  I was dazed.  Went to my locker to clean it out as my teammates were dressing to practice.  One person noticed (a person who went to the NFL and now coaches DL for Cleveland now) said, "You done, xxxx?"  I could not answer, so I nodded without looking at him.  That was it.  They kept practicing, someone stepped up into my spot on the depth chart, and that was it. It is how it is-

Ron should know that.  Blaming the cap, etc.  Eventually, you get eliminated and are soon forgotten.  The quicker you put it behind you, the better.

 

 

[tiger7_88]

Ol’ Ron probably sure misses his Daddy Jerry and the closeness of his Panther Fambly.

[usmcpanthers]

ugh the please turn off ad blocker stuff is so annoying on observer articles!

[Cdw]

“It’s a big deal for me,” he said this week . “And one of the things I talk about with guys is not wasting opportunities, more so than an ything else..."

He's never missed an opportunity to use that line it seems

[JARROD]

Grown men getting rich to play a game for the entertainment of others is a gift every day that most of us wish we could do.

There are no gracious exits,..only gracious that you even went to a training camp.

go get a real job in the real world for a moment.

most of those have no gracious exits either,... and for peanuts

[Mr. Scot]

56 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Winning is a big deal for me.

For a lot of us, but we know for Richardson there were things that mattered more than winning. Did that rub off on Rivera or was Rivera just naturally the same way?

I'm inclined to think the latter.