Quarterback Cam Newton and coach Ron Rivera joined the Carolina Panthers together in 2011 – Newton as the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft and Rivera in his first job as a head coach. They spent almost nine seasons together with the Panthers. On Sunday, they’ll be together again for a homecoming game when the Washington Football Team visits Carolina.
Carolina fired Rivera with four games remaining in the 2019 season. Newton played only two games that year because of a foot injury, and the Panthers released him in March 2020.
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Last season, Rivera took the reins of the Washington Football Team and Newton played for the New England Patriots. Rivera remains with Washington, but Newton was released on Aug. 31 by New England.
With starting quarterback Sam Darnold headed toward injured reserve, Carolina signed Newton last week, and the former Auburn All-American ran for a touchdown and threw a TD pass the first two times he touched the football as the Panthers upended the Arizona Cardinals 34-10 on the road on Sunday.
Newton had had only one practice with Carolina before playing nine snaps against Arizona. P.J. Walker made his second NFL start on Sunday at quarterback for Carolina, but the Panthers are working to get Newton ready to take the first snaps against Washington.
“I think we’re probably trending that way, to be quite honest with you,” Carolina coach Matt Rhule said on Wednesday when asked if Newton would start on Sunday. “I’m not going to probably pull that trigger until later. But I think I was pretty transparent the other day in terms of we’re wanting to push him into that role. I think it’s good for our team. But we’re getting P.J. ready as well, and I think game-plan-wise, I think we could see a myriad of different things happen.”
Sunday’s game will be Rivera’s first in Carolina since he was fired. He guided the Panthers to three of the franchise’s six division titles with Newton at quarterback, and they reached Super Bowl 50 together.
“There’s a lot of really cool moments,” Rivera said of his time with Newton. “Everything from him being our first draft pick and the work that we put in to make him our first draft pick. One of the things that I think was really cool was that last week of draft preparation, I flew to Atlanta to visit him and his family, and we spent time together. I got an opportunity to see him interact with his folks, with his brothers, and when you see that and you see how genuine that is, you know he’s a good person. And that’s the thing that I really respected was the type of young man he is. But really got to see his family life, his home life, and that’s something I always remember.
“And then there’s some other things that went on from the time when he was in the car accident during the season to the only time -- I don’t want to say when I benched him -- but the only time that I did was when I got him to admit his foot really was hurt, and then we put him on IR my last year. That was tough because he’s a competitor. He didn’t want to quit, but we told him, ‘You have to because you’re hurt.’
“I’ll always remember that. The thing I’ll always remember, too, is he hated to lose more than anybody I’ve ever been around. After the 2015 Super Bowl, they didn’t realize. They called him a sore loser. Well, he is, because he wants to win. That’s who he is. I tried to deflect that just so the people understand the dude’s going to give you everything he has, which he did, and unfortunately, we didn’t win it.”
While Newton has been a free agent twice since Rivera took charge in Washington, the coach has one of Newton’s Carolina backups, Taylor Heinicke, playing quarterback for him.
“I am looking forward to it,” Rivera said of facing Newton. “I’m a big fan. I’ve always been a big fan of his just because he’s the right type of guy, I’ve always believed that, for what we tried to do back then, so it’ll be interesting. I really do believe it’s interesting. But I’m happy for him. He’s got his opportunity again.”
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The Alabama Game of the Week is the New York Giants-Tampa Bay Buccaneers contest on Monday. Thirteen players from state high schools and colleges are on the teams’ active rosters.
The complete Week 11 schedule (with all times Central and point spreads from vegasinsider.com):
Thursday
· New England Patriots (-7) at Atlanta Falcons, 7:20 p.m. (FOX, NFL Network, Amazon)
Sunday
· Indianapolis Colts at Buffalo Bills (-7), noon
· Washington Football Team at Carolina Panthers (-3.5), noon (WBRC, WZDX, WCOV, WDFX)
· Baltimore Ravens (-5) at Chicago Bears, noon (WKRG, WAKA, WTVY)
· Detroit Lions at Cleveland Browns (-11.5), noon
· San Francisco 49ers (-6.5) at Jacksonville Jaguars, noon
· Green Bay Packers (-2.5) at Minnesota Vikings, noon
· Miami Dolphins (-3) at New York Jets, noon
· New Orleans Saints at Philadelphia Eagles (-2), noon (WALA)
· Houston Texans at Tennessee Titans (-10), noon (WIAT, WHNT)
· Cincinnati Bengals (-1) at Las Vegas Raiders, 3:05 p.m.
· Dallas Cowboys at Kansas City Chiefs (-2.5), 3:25 p.m. (WBRC, WZDX, WALA, WCOV, WDFX)
· Arizona Cardinals (-2.5) at Seattle Seahawks, 3:25 p.m.
· Pittsburgh Steelers at Los Angeles Chargers (-5.5), 7:20 p.m. (NBC)
Monday
· New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-11), 7:15 p.m. (ESPN, ESPN2)
Bye: Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Rams
CHECK OUT MAPS OF SUNDAY’S BROADCAST TV COVERAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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