Ron Rivera Wins Coach of the Year for 2nd Time in Three Seasons

30 years after Mike Ditka was named AP Coach of the Year, he announced the same honor for his former linebacker.

Ron Rivera, who played under Ditka on the 1985 Super Bowl-winning Bears, was on Saturday night named Coach of the Year for the second time in the past three seasons. Rivera received 36.5 of a possible 50 votes. Kansas City's Andy Reid finished second with six votes.

Rivera has a career mark of 50-34-1.

The only other Panthers coach to win the award was Dom Capers in 1996.

With Super Bowl kickoff about 21 hours away, Rivera and MVP winner Cam Newton both had to skip the ceremony in San Francisco. They instead sent videotaped messages from the team hotel in San Jose.

Rivera's aired after Ditka made the announcement.

"Before Ron was a coach, he played linebacker for me and I'm so proud of him," he said.

Rivera then began his acceptance speech with a nod to his former coach.

"Wow, I really do appreciate this Coach Ditka. Thanks for being here," Rivera said.

"I want to say thanks on behalf of our organization. An award like this is indicative of the organization and ours starts at the top with our owner Jerry Richardson, but also with our general manager Dave Gettleman, who's been very supportive the last few years and been behind me the whole way.

"I want to say thank you very much to our coaches because this is as much part of them as it is mine. And our players. I want to thank my parents. I want to thank my wife Stephanie, our kids Christopher and Courtney. And I want to thank my brothers, Steve and John for being there.

"And also, I want to dedicate this to my brother Mickey, who recently passed of pancreatic cancer."