I asked Washington coach Ron Rivera if he regretted taking the job. This was his reply
Former Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera said in an interview with The Charlotte Observer on Friday he had “no regrets” about taking the job as head coach of Washington’s NFL franchise, even though he said he also had “no idea” about the toxic culture of workplace misconduct inside the team’s offices when he was hired.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that 15 women who previously worked for Washington’s NFL team said they were sexually harassed from 2006-19 while employees of the club. The harassment and verbal abuse came from former scouts and some members of owner Daniel Snyder’s inner circle, the Post reported.
“I had no idea about this stuff,” Rivera said Friday in a brief interview we conducted through text-messaging.
Given that the coach didn’t know anything when he was hired about the issues detailed in the Post report — and given the many other issues that have plagued Washington’s NFL team before Rivera has even coached a single game there — did he regret taking the Washington job?
“No regrets,” Rivera texted. “I look forward to the challenge of improving a 3-13 team. I want to build a sustainable winning culture, in every facet.”
Rivera coached the Panthers from 2011 until he was fired with four games left in the 2019 season. Well-respected and liked throughout the league, Rivera was widely considered the most eligible coaching free agent for any 2020 coaching vacancy.
But Rivera quickly signed what was reported as a five-year deal to coach Washington in early January, eschewing what could have been potential head-coaching opportunities with the Dallas Cowboys, N.Y. Giants and Cleveland Browns. His logic at the time?
“I knew that money was not an issue,” Rivera texted. “They (Washington) are a very young team holding the 2nd pick of the draft. Salary cap (was) in a good position as well and… I had time to fix things.”
Rivera, though, didn’t know all he was going to have to fix. He inherited an enormous mess.
It’s not just the team. It’s not just the team name — Washington announced only Monday that, after 87 years, it will no longer be called the “Redskins.” A new name and logo is coming soon, and Rivera is working on that issue, too.
It’s also the workplace culture.
As a head coach, Rivera already has had to deal with the fallout of one explosive media report of sexual harassment involving a team that employed him. In 2017, Sports Illustrated detailed numerous instances of workplace misconduct, of both a sexual and racial nature, of then-Carolina owner Jerry Richardson.
Richardson, who founded the team, announced within hours of publication that he would sell it. But the NFL still investigated his behavior, found the SI report accurate and eventually fined Richardson $2.75 million — nearly tripling the previous largest fine in league history. A statue of Richardson in front of Bank of America Stadium was recently removed and won’t return, sources have told me.
Rivera was the Panthers’ head coach throughout the Richardson scandal and often had to publicly answer questions about the investigation, since Richardson hasn’t done a news conference in years.
‘My daughter works for the team’
Now Rivera is employed by another team that has been hit with another seismic report of sexual harassment in the team offices.
When I asked the coach how he planned to change Washington’s workplace culture, he reminded me his daughter Courtney now works for Washington’s NFL team (she worked for the Panthers, too). Rivera also texted me the statement he had issued Thursday.
“Biggest thing is that we have to move forward from this and make sure everybody understands we have policies that we will follow and that we have an open door policy with no retribution,” Rivera texted. “Plus my daughter works for the team and I sure as hell am not going to allow any of this!”
There are some obvious comparisons here to be made between Carolina and Washington. The alleged predatory behavior is similar, executed by men in positions of power. There are lots of non-disclosure agreements floating around. When I reached out to Panthers spokesman Steven Drummond Friday to ask about these comparisons, he declined to comment on behalf of the team, which new owner David Tepper bought from Richardson in 2018.
In the Panthers’ case, the sexual harassment scandal reached to the very top of the organization — Richardson was the only person directly implicated. In the Washington scandal, Snyder isn’t directly accused in any of these incidents of sexual harassment.
But the Post story also said the 15 women in question “blamed (Snyder) for an understaffed human resources department and what they viewed as a sophomoric culture of verbal abuse among top executives that they believed played a role in how those executives treated their employees.”
‘Creepy’ Washington offices
I have a friend who worked for Washington’s NFL team not long ago. We talked Friday; she preferred to stay anonymous due to the nature of this story. She wasn’t among those contacted for the Post story, but she was with the team long enough to understand its workplace culture.
The two words that came to mind the most about that culture, she said, were “creepy” and “sexist.”
It was the one time in her employment career, she said, where she was made aware she was a woman every single day — by the way she was treated, by the things she wasn’t allowed to do, by the responsibilities she should have had but that were instead entrusted to men who held the exact same title as she did.
It was a toxic place, she said, and she was glad to be done with it.
I know what a good man Rivera is, having been around him for nearly nine years. What I don’t know is whether he can ultimately succeed building a winner in Washington with Snyder as boss. The list of coaches who couldn’t — Joe Gibbs, Steve Spurrier and Mike Shanahan among them — is bracing. Rivera may beat the odds, but I think he’s far more likely to do so if Snyder relinquishes his ownership.
For now, that’s not happening.
So Rivera is in crisis-management mode again, something he’s very good at given his long history of doing exactly that in Charlotte. And he still wants the job. He’s still excited about building something in Washington, once all of this tear-down is complete.
“No regrets,” he said in that text message Friday.
I’m glad he feels like that. In a year, I wonder if he’ll answer the same question in the same way.
This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 2:37 PM with the headline "I asked Washington coach Ron Rivera if he regretted taking the job. This was his reply."
