Ron Rivera: ‘Once a Bear, always a Bear'

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INDIANAPOLIS – Ron Rivera came to this year’s NFL Scouting Combine as coach of the NFC-champion Carolina Panthers, who put up the league’s best record for 2016. And he is front-and-center with his appreciation for what Carolina owner Jerry Richardson did in staying the course with him after a rocky start after Rivera succeeded John Fox in 2011.

But there’s this special place down deep inside for a certain Midwest metropolis… . Will Rivera always be a Chicago Bear at heart?

“Very much so,” Rivera told CSNChicago.com during the NFL Scouting Combine. “I love the city of Chicago, the organization, what they’ve given me. They gave me my opportunity, not just as a player but as a coach as well… .   

“Once a Bear, always a Bear.”

Rivera was a member of the ’85 Bears, coming to the Bears as a second-round pick out of Cal (another “Bears” team), and experienced near-immediate success as part of that legendary team.

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But he benefited from the patience Richardson had with him, and Rivera employed that same kind of patience with quarterback Cam Newton, Rivera’s No. 1 pick in the 2011 draft.

“I think it vindicates a lot of things,” Rivera said. “Everything I believed in, the way of doing things… . I think right now, because we’ve become very impatient as a society, people are losing patience and not willing to give people time.”

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