In a year that has fed him a steady diet of bad news, Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera got some good news today. Monday will be the start of his final cancer treatment.
Rivera was diagnosed over the summer with squamous cell carcinoma, the second-most-common form of skin cancer. He has said that doctors caught it early and his prognosis for a full recovery is excellent.
Rivera announced the diagnosis during training camp and has been receiving treatment since. In a zoom call with reporters Friday, he said it has been a journey but he is looking forward to finally going full speed.
“I’m looking forward to that,” the coach said. “It’s hard. You try to map everything out and then traditionally you’re here until 8:30, 9:30, 10:30, 11:00 at night. And now I hit 5:00 and I’ve got to go home.”
Rivera drew up a contingency plan for that scenario earlier this summer with defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio tapped by Rivera to lead team activities in his absence. Del Rio is a former head coach and while coaching in Denver, was named interim head coach when then-head coach John Fox was hospitalized for heart surgery.
Rivera has been forced to change his routine at times this season. He was given an IV at halftime of the season opener against Philadelphia. At the time, then-starting QB Dwayne Haskins gave a rousing halftime speech to help rally the team from a 10-point deficit. Rivera has also been seen sitting on the bench at times during games and he missed a couple of days of practice earlier in the season when the side effects of his treatment became too draining to continue.
“Really the fatigue… I told my wife it’s like having a 300-pound gorilla on your back,” he said.
It will not be an instant transformation but, with Washington’s bye next week, Rivera will have an entire week to rest before returning to FedEx to play the New York Giants on November 8th.
“I’m looking forward to [the rest]. It’s probably going to take three or four weeks after I get my last treatment because of the recovery period, but I really am looking forward to it,” he said.