Ronald Eugene Rivera (born January 7, 1962), nicknamed "Riverboat Ron", is an American football head coach for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He attended the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1980s, where he was recognized as an All-American linebacker for the Golden Bears. Following graduation, he was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the second round of the 1984 NFL Draft and played nine seasons with them, including as a member of the 1985 team that won Super Bowl XX. Rivera's coaching career began in 1997 when he served as a quality control coach for the Bears. He joined the Philadelphia Eagles as a linebackers coach two years later before rejoining the Bears as their defensive coordinator in 2004. The following year, he was named Assistant Coach of the Year by the PFWA and helped coach linebacker Brian Urlacher into being named Defensive Player of the Year. In 2006, the team made an appearance in Super Bowl XLI. Rivera also interviewed for a few head coaching vacancies around this time. In 2007, he joined the San Diego Chargers coaching linebackers before being promoted to defensive coordinator a year later. After three years with the Chargers, Rivera was hired as head coach for the Carolina Panthers and would become their all-time leader in wins. He was also recognized as the NFL Coach of the Year in 2013 and 2015 and led the team to an appearance in Super Bowl 50. Rivera was fired midway through the 2019 season due to the teams new ownership wanting change and became Washington's head coach in 2020. He was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma that same year but was considered cancer free by early 2021. He is the only coach in NFL history to have led a team with a losing record to the playoffs more than once, doing so with Carolina in 2014 and Washington in 2020. Early years Rivera was born in Fort Ord, California on January 7, 1962. His father, Eugenio Rivera, was a Puerto Rican commissioned officer in the US Army stationed in California. There Eugenio met his future wife, Dolores, who is of Mexican descent. The family moved often due to his father's military service, with Rivera being educated in bases in Germany, Panama, and Washington, D.C. The family eventually settled in Marina, California, where he attended and played football at Seaside High School