Ron Rivera had a solid nine-year NFL playing career, playing in 137 games, winning a Super Bowl, and was a key member of the 1985 Chicago Bears, arguably the greatest defense ever.
After his playing career, Rivera jumped into coaching. Fourteen years after his coaching journey began, Rivera landed his first head coaching job with the Panthers in 2011. He spent almost nine full seasons with Carolina, leading the Panthers to one Super Bowl appearance. After being fired from Carolina, Washington hired Rivera as head coach.
With Washington, Rivera also served as the head of football operations, although it wasn't a part of his official title. Rivera spent four seasons as head coach of the Commanders before he was fired in January.
In 13 seasons as an NFL head coach, Rivera finished with a 102-103-2 record, with a 3-5 postseason record.
Working in the media this year, the 62-year-old Rivera still wants to coach. And one longtime NFL columnist believes Rivera's former team, the Bears, should hire him.
Dan Pompei of The Athletic penned a column saying that the struggling Bears, who will likely fire head coach Matt Eberflus after this season, said Rivera would make Chicago players "accountable." Additionally, Pompei said the Bears ignoring Rivera would be a mistake, similar to not interviewing another Chicago player-turned-coach, Jim Harbaugh.
Let's note that Harbaugh, in his first season as the Chargers head coach, has a career NFL record of 52-25-1 and an NCAA record of 133-52. He's led a team to the Super Bowl and won a national championship.
The mere notion of Rivera landing another head coaching job had Washington and Chicago fans reacting on X -- formerly Twitter. The reactions weren't positive.
The mention of Rivera as a possible candidate had one Bears fan saying he'd switch teams.
The Commanders are 9-5 under new head coach Dan Quinn -- one year after Rivera led Washington to a 4-13 record. New general manager Adam Peters has flipped over half of the roster Rivera built, including jettisoning his last three first-round picks.