I'm going to assume you are going to go read the piece as there is too much good stuff in it to give it justice with paraphrasing. Here's an anecdotal story related to Rivera's house fire then a couple of my favorite points:
Ron Rivera discovers the secret to coaching by throwing the book out | NBC SportsWorld
"Yeah, I’ve got something to say," Rivera said, and then he looked at the players. "Let me tell you guys something. Last September, when we started, I showed you a picture of my house after the fire. You remember that?
Let’s me tell you, a house fire, it’s traumatic. It impacts you. It changes you. "You know what happens after a house fire? They bring in lawyers. They bring in the fire investigators. They bring in the police. And they all start questioning you. They ask about your personal finances. They ask if anybody is out to get you. They ask if you are out to get anybody. It’s personal. They break you down."
Then we go inside the house. And I’m looking at the fireplace. I have a family nickname. My kids call me Mr. Safety. My whole life — and I get this from my father — before I go to bed, I check the house. That’s what I did before I went to bed that night. And, still, we had a house fire. So I’m looking at the fireplace, and a detective comes up to me and says, ‘I know what you’re thinking. And you need to stop thinking that. You could not have prevented this.’ "And then, do you know what he said to me? He looked around at my house, at all the damage.
And he looked at me and said, ‘This happened because somebody did not do their job." And with that, Ron Rivera left the room.
Other revelations I enjoyed from the interview:
'There is No Book'
This one he got from John Madden though it took the loss to the Bills for him to fully embrace it. You remember the loss I'm referring to, when he kicked the FG to go up by 6 points rather than go for it on 4th down. I lambasted him for not going for it on 4th and 1. We now know that was the moment when 'Riverboat' was borne.
'Be Yourself'
I found Rivera's story about not worrying about dressing the part anymore funny considering his attire at TC. He definitely has embraced that one.
'The Locker Room Is Not Off Limits to Coaches'
Rivera had always considered the locker room to be the players space, not coaches. To break down the barriers and to be closer to his players Rivera built an office off of the locker room. In the part when Rivera talks about his dinner meeting that resulted in this revelation I get the suspicion that the players were referring to some of the former Panthers that have now left the team. I might be reading something into it but that was my impression. I'm not going to name names, but one comes to mind.
So what did you think of the article?