Ron Rivera's cancer ordeal just one of many trials faced by Washington Football Team coach 

The confluence of challenges was like nothing any NFL coach had ever experienced.

Taking over a beleaguered franchise in Washington was a big enough mountain to climb. As it turned out, that was the easy part. The circumstances that came next were unimaginable:

A reckoning with the racist connotations of the iconic team’s nickname that ultimately would result in its removal.

Highly disturbing reports of allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace by team employees, including reports that two female journalists were harassed, resulted in an ongoing investigation into years’ worth of claims.

A pandemic.

The eruption of highly charged demonstrations following the May 25 death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis, and the rekindling of anger over the killing of Breonna Taylor during a botched drug raid in Louisville two months earlier.

And, finally, a cancer diagnosis that left him feeling scared, angry and guilty.

This is Ron Rivera’s world.

Try running a football team under those conditions.

"Well, I think the big thing, going back and looking when I got started to all the stuff that went on from the BLM movement, to the name change, to the allegations that came out in a couple of the stories written in the newspaper, to my health, more so than anything else," Rivera said.

"Then, dealing with COVID, I think the one thing initially was trying to keep the players focused on football, on really staying into who we are as a football team, staying into what we’re trying to get accomplished as a football team in terms of our growth and development as a new set of coaches coming in trying to create a new culture."

It has required a herculean effort from the 58-year-old coach, who was fired by the Panthers after last season and quickly hired by Daniel Snyder.

Former Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman, now running the Giants’ front office, was interested in Rivera, who might have interviewed for the Giants’ job. Snyder, however, wouldn’t let him leave the building, believing he had the right leader to transform his team after years of dysfunction.

Rivera has been tested like no other.

"That was one of the hard parts, trying to keep everything focused in on football and then trying to get the preparation going," said Rivera, whose 2-5 team will face the Giants on Sunday at FedEx Field. "Then trying to, for me personally, stay involved with the team as I was going through my treatments. That was probably one of the more difficult things that I’ve had to deal with, and then at the same time trying to present the right type of front for our players. It was a challenge, it really was."

He was diagnosed in August with squamous cell cancer after it was detected in a lymph node. He was required to undergo seven weeks of treatment, including chemotherapy, although he vowed to continue coaching with as little interruption as possible.

He has not missed a game, and on Oct. 26, he underwent his final treatment at Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, Virginia. On his way out, he took part in the traditional milestone of ringing a bell on the wall to signify the end of his treatments.  

It was a moment that resonated around the country. Inside, Rivera experienced a range of emotions.

"Just the anger I felt about it, the concern, the fear I had about it, and then finding out what my regime was going to be — seven weeks of treatments, 35 proton treatments, three cycles of chemotherapy — and just knowing how far it was to go," he said.

"But ringing the bell and really thinking about how much I did accomplish, the things that we did accomplish and knowing that we were fortunate we caught it or knowing that we had a plan and a good group of doctors behind us, hoping now that I’m in the recovery phase that the medicine that’s in me continues to do its job and finish off the cancer."

It wasn’t so much the physical toll but the emotional one as a coach. Especially the times he couldn’t be with his team.

"Probably the hardest thing for me was not being able to be there and be focused all the time on the development of our football team," he said. "At times, I felt guilty about it because it’s a group of young men that deserve to have their coach there, and not being able to be there and be prepared for them, that was hard."

He is back, and he is grateful. Rivera also is intent on helping others who might not have the means to fight the way he did.

"Having gone through what I’ve gone through in the last probably 12 weeks from my diagnosis until now is we need to have some form of Affordable Care Act," he said. "I think there’s a group of Americans that need to be covered, that need to have the benefit of that, and we need to figure it out quickly, because I saw what it costs . . . I can only imagine what it is for Americans who don’t have it, and for us to be one of the richest countries in the world and not have a good medical plan for our citizens is disappointing."

Rivera will continue to speak out, but for now, his focus is where he has wanted it to be all along: on football.

And thank goodness for that.

By Bob Glauber

Special to NewsdayBobGlauber

Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”