Cal Football announced on Thursday that they have formally hired Rivera, the former NFL head coach. Rivera will be serving as the general manager of their program.

The 63-year-old Rivera has 13 total years of NFL head coaching experience between the Carolina Panthers (whom he led from 2011-19) and Washington (whom he led from 2020-23). Rivera was a two-time NFL Coach of the Year with the Panthers and led them to Super Bowl 50 in the 2015 season. But he was far less successful during his time in Washington, posting an overall losing record of 26-40-1 (.396) in his four seasons before getting fired.

Rivera took the 2024 campaign off but is now jumping right back into the football ranks as the new GM at Cal. There is a strong connection there too as Rivera is a Golden Bears alum who played for them as a linebacker from 1980-83 and was a consensus All-American as well as the Pac-10 Football Defensive Player of the Year in 1983.

Although they have now qualified for the bowl game in consecutive seasons, Cal has struggled recently and hasn’t had a winning campaign since 2019. Rivera, who was still interviewing with NFL teams just last month, is also returning to the Bay Area, where the team is still led by head coach Justin Wilcox, who took over in 2017.

Commanders’ head coach Ron Rivera recently spoke to the local media ahead of Sunday’s game which many believe, would be his last game for the team. However, there hasn’t been much of discussion about Sunday’s game as Ron Rivera was questioned regarding his future.

New owner Josh Harris is believed to release Ron Rivera and his staff soon while also making front-office changes. Rivera has also been the top football decision-maker over the past four seasons and his time at the Washington-based side is likely to be over.

Ron Rivera reflects on his tenure at Washington Commanders

During Friday’s media session via JP Finlay , Rivera mostly talked about his run with the Commanders. Recently, Washington has lost all five of the games that Rivera coached. Rivera was asked if he still enjoyed coaching, to which he replied:

“You know, it’s interesting, and I don’t know if people will agree with me or believe in what I’m saying, but to hell with that,” Rivera said. “I managed for about three and a half years while I was here. Probably the last five weeks I’ve coached; getting back and doing the defensive coordinator stuff was a thrill.”

Rivera was further asked if he would have preferred it if there had been more separation between the management and coaching sides.

“Well, if I knew all that, [laughs] in hindsight, yeah, absolutely,” he said. “I didn’t want that pressure. I mean, it’s one thing to think, okay, yeah, great, but then once you actually go through it, it was a lot.”

Ron Rivera opens up a bit about his Washington tenure, says circumstances forced him to take on too much non-football role: “For 3.5 years I’ve been managing. About the last 5 weeks I’ve been coaching.” pic.twitter.com/BuZGIiEvMB

— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) January 5, 2024

On Monday, for the first time in over two decades, the Washington Commanders will see drastic and much-needed changes after which they can hope for better times to arrive.

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Five months after he was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer, Ron Rivera has finally been declared as cancer free following a medical checkup on Thursday.

Ron Rivera cured of squamous cell carcinoma

The positive news was first shared by both Ron’s wife Stephanie Rivera and daughter Courtney Rivera on Twitter earlier on Thursday soon after the PET scan reports revealed that the Washington chief has won the fight against the deadly diseases.

Soon afterward, Rivera himself took to the social media platform to announce the news himself, along with his two pet dogs and a message that read “WE KICKED CANCER’S A**!”

“Thank you everyone for your prayers, letters, texts & notes of encouragement & support. It truly made a difference in my treatment & recovery! #RiveraStrong @WashingtonNFL” the post was captioned.

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Back in August last year, an early stage squamous cell carcinoma was detected in a lymph node in Rivera’s neck. The coach, who appointed Washington’s defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio to fill in his shoes in case of any emergency, underwent two months of chemotherapy as well as proton therapy for five days each week.

A former Chicago Bears rotational linebacker, Rivera lost his brother Mickey to pancreatic cancer in 2015.

The 59-year-old, who joined Washington from Carolina Panthers last year, often received intravenous therapy during matches and was often carried to training session on golf carts. Despite his body weakening from the chemo, Rivera never skipped a game and was absent from practice only three times.

His treatment at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute ended on 26th October, which took a toll on his health. He lost 36 pounds of weight and would take naps often. The team had initiated a support campaign named “Rivera Strong” to aid their man in charge in need.

“At times you get nauseous,” Rivera said in an interview back in October, “At times your equilibrium is messed around with, almost a sense of vertigo. And then the nausea. It hits you at any time, anywhere. But the fatigue, going out to practice it limited me, and that bothers me because I can’t coach the way I coach.” (H/T ESPN)

Despite the challenges, Washington finished the regular season with 7 wins and 9 losses, winning the NFC East.