The best news of the NFL offseason broke on Thursday, and it had nothing to do with football. Ron Rivera’s daughter revealed on Twitter that her dad is cancer free.
Rivera was diagnosed with a squamous cell carcinoma last August. He underwent treatment while continuing to coach the Washington Football Team throughout the 2020 season. Amazingly, he didn’t miss any games and led Washington to an NFC East title.
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“There’s certain things that pop up all the time,” Rivera said in a previous press conference. “Sudden side effects that you have, the fatigue, how tired you get, at times you get nauseous. Honestly, at times your equilibrium is messed around with, almost a sense of vertigo. Then, the nausea. And it hits you at any time, anywhere.
“But the fatigue, you know, going out to practice and stuff, it limited me and that really bothers me because I can’t coach the way I coach. So that’s hard, being out there and not being able to just get into it the way I normally would. So that was hard for me.
“The fatigue, it’s really like I told my wife, like having a 300-pound gorilla on your back.”
Rivera was the Bears’ defensive coordinator from 2004-2006, and played linebacker on the Bears’ 1985 Shufflin’ Crew.
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