CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Ron Rivera hasn't gone to work during any season feeling as if he might be fired ever since a 1-3 start in 2013, because former Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson made it clear then that wasn't his intention.
"He's always told me he would make no decisions until after. So I've always had that [assurance]," Rivera revealed in 2015 when the Panthers were making a run to Super Bowl 50. "And I've never used that. He told me if I ever had to I could tell that to you guys and I never did.