Cal Football: Coach Ron Rivera Appears to be the Right Man in Washington

OK, so it wasn’t the game of the day in the NFL. Sunday’s headliner was the New Orleans Saints taking down Tom Brady in his first game as quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Meanwhile, in Landover, Maryland, it looked like more of the same for the Washington Football Team, down 17-0 early to the Philadelphia Eagles.

But the franchise that no longer has a nickname yet leads the NFL in controversy, stormed back to win 27-17, thanks in part to a halftime speech that coach Ron Rivera did not deliver.

What?

Well, the one-time Cal All-America linebacker, in his first season as coach at Washington after nine seasons with the Carolina Panthers, was busy at halftime. He was getting an IV, which apparently will be part of his halftime routine all season as he combats skin cancer.

Instead, Rivera instructed one of his staff members to find a player to address the team, which trailed 17-7 at the half.

“We needed somebody to step up through halftime,” Rivera told SI's Albert Breer.

Turns out, second-year quarterback Dwayne Haskins didn’t have be prompted to show some leadership.

It’s what Rivera had been preaching to the 22-year-old since joining the franchise six months ago: Be a leader.

Rivera was a room nearby getting his treatment and could hear what was happening in the locker room.

“And there’s a high-pitched voice just going at it, going at it,” Rivera said. “And they told me it was Dwayne Haskins. He’d challenged the team.

“It was kind of cool to see that he was the one that did it. Honestly, I couldn't hear it. I just know it was pretty fiery and he was challenging everybody.”

*** SI's Albert Breer on Washington's opening-day victory:

All credit to Hawkins, who apparently has embraced the role Rivera envisioned for him by dropping weight, immersing himself in the playbook and organizing workouts with young receivers during the COVID-19 stoppage.

But this is exactly why Rivera was the right fit for the job at Washington, which is coming off a 3-13 season, hasn’t made the playoffs since 2015, hasn’t won a playoff game since 2005 and hasn’t reached the Super Bowl since 1991.

Washington has been an eyesore in the NFL for most of the past two decades, in large because of owner Daniel Snyder, whose own leadership skills appear sadly lacking. He went kicking and screaming before conceding the franchise had to drop the nickname “Redskins” because of its racial insensitivity.

Now we find, thanks to reporting by the Washington Post, that Snyder oversaw a “toxic” work environment that caused three employees on the football operations side to be fired. And, in a follow-up story, that Snyder is directly implicated in that workplace behavior.

Rivera won’t fix all this overnight. But his leadership, his integrity and his toughness will all factor into the solutions for a franchise whose fan base is hungry for a successful product.

Rivera also is a realist who understands why outsiders are critical of the Washington Football Team.

“Without a doubt,” he told SI’s Breer. “To me the biggest thing, more than anything else, I've been trying to tell everybody, just don't judge us on where we've been. Judge us on where we're going. I get it. We've made some mistakes in the past, this organization, this team. We're trying to correct those things. We're trying to go forward. People keep wanting to be pulling us back. So I said to the guys, Don't go backwards with anybody.

“Let's just keep going forward. Let's worry about what we can do. Let's talk about what we can impact and how we can make things happen as opposed to what's already happened.”

Rivera, who continues to receive chemo treatments for his cancer, said he got a little tired by the end of the game. He also said the halftime IV was a good move.

The Washington franchise hasn’t gotten much right for years and there are plenty of obstacles ahead before lasting success is perhaps achieved. But Week 1 was an indication that they hired right man to coach the team: A guy who understands that a big part of leadership is enabling others to share that role.

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

Click the "follow" button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Cal Sports Report on SI. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page.

Add us as a preferred source on Google