When Ron Rivera arrived in Chicago as the Bears’ second-round draft pick out of Cal in 1984, coach Mike Ditka quickly recognized Rivera’s potential, not just on the field but on the sideline.
Ditka told PFT at the Chicago premiere of ESPN’s upcoming ‘85 Bears documentary that he knew early on in Rivera’s playing career that he had a future as an NFL head coach.
“He was intelligent, he was a leader of our defense, and he was a student of the game, and he wanted to coach,” Ditka said.
Ditka isn’t claiming that he predicted Rivera would lead a team to a Super Bowl, but he does say he always had faith in Rivera’s coaching abilities. That includes believing in Rivera early on in his career as the Panthers’ coach, when he went 6-10 in his first year, 7-9 in his second year and started 1-3 in his third year. At that point, Ditka said, Rivera was just going through growing pains that every new coach goes through.
“We’ve all been there. I was there too in 1982 and 1983,” Ditka said. “It takes time to build. In ’82 we weren’t very good, ’83 we were OK, ’84 we were close and ’85 we won it.”
That 1985 Bears team, with Ditka as a head coach and Rivera as a linebacker, finished an 18-1 season with a victory at Super Bowl XX. Now Rivera’s 2015 Panthers team is poised to finish an 18-1 season with a victory at Super Bowl 50.
