Panthers coach Ron Rivera usually goes to great lengths to keep controversy at arm’s length.
But he’s willing to not only defend disgraced Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, but to turn him into a motivating factor for his team.
After Sunday’s win over the Buccaneers, Rivera called the team together in the locker room, and broke down the meeting by invoking the guy who is selling the team after allegations of sexual harassment and making racial remarks to a former scout. Richardson has ceded day-to-day control of the team to Tina Becker until the sale goes through, but was at Sunday’s game in his usual seat in the owner’s box, next to his wife Rosalind.
“Just remember guys, this is about team,” Rivera said after the game, via a video posted on the team’s website. “Everything we do is about team. The most important thing is about team, OK? All right, do me a favor – ‘Mr. Richardson’ on three. 1-2-3!”
Asked about that decision Tuesday, Rivera went back to the well of speaking about how well Richardson treated him.
“What I’ve always said is I know nothing about that,” he said, via Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer. “I can only speak for what he has been to me and the players. And that’s why I did it.”
Of course, some players who don’t demean women or happen to be African American might have felt a little uncomfortable at the notion, but Rivera clearly doesn’t mind using the owner who’s leaving under dubious circumstances as a rallying cry.
It would be a little more normal if Rivera ever issued any opinions that strayed too far from the middle. His initial response to the reports about Richardson was decidedly #sticktosports, but he’s a football coach who tries to sequester himself in a football world, so trying to avoid divisive topics isn’t necessarily surprising.
When Charlotte was gripped by riots in September 2016 after the police shooting of an African American man, Rivera talked about how their game could become a point of unity, and compared it to wildfires in California when he was coaching with the Chargers.
“I know this is different to a degree, but playing that game I thought brought a little bit of normalcy to the city,” Rivera said then. “I think we can do that for this community.”
When players were trying to decide how to respond to President Donald Trump’s comments about players who protested during the national anthem, he urged them to stand at attention, and: “We need to think it and vision it for an America that we believe in, that is free from injustice, free from bigotry, and free from prejudice.”
Some of his coworkers might have had a similar vision for their place of employment. But Rivera’s trying to win some more football games, and apparently trying to make sure the guy who finally gave him a head coaching job gets the credit Rivera thinks he deserves.
