Rivera gets to escort ex-GM out Giant door
When Dave Gettleman was hired by the Panthers as their new general manager in January 2013, there was no guarantee the incumbent head coach, Ron Rivera, would be retained. Gettleman and Rivera did not have a previous relationship, and Rivera was 13-19 in his first two years in Carolina.
The two men went to breakfast in what Gettleman has called a “blind date.’’ They hit it off. Rivera was not fired. Together, Gettleman and Rivera guided the Panthers to three consecutive NFC South division titles and made it to one Super Bowl after going 15-1 in 2015. Rivera was twice named NFL Coach of the Year.
This was a case of a new general manager keeping the sitting head coach and it working out — something for the Giants to think about, as Gettleman will be fired or will announce his retirement as soon as this season ends, probably on Monday — and Giants ownership has to decide on a new general manager and what to do with head coach Joe Judge.
Gettleman was fired by the Panthers after the 2017 season because of a personality conflict with the owner, Jerry Richardson. Rivera was let go by the Panthers after the 2019 season and quickly was hired in Washington. His team faces the Giants on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in Gettleman’s last game as general manager.
“I got a tremendous amount of respect for Dave Gettleman and who he is as a person and as an evaluator,’’ Rivera said this week. “It worked with us. I thought we worked well together, we communicated well. We had our differences of opinion. The one thing he always said, and I appreciated, was, ‘Hey Ron, when we walk out, when we’re done, we got to be on the same page.’ I think for the most part that’s what happened. I really appreciated that approach.’’
Gettleman rebounded from getting dismissed in Carolina. In 2018, he returned to the Giants — where he previously spent 15 years in the pro personnel department — and promised to fix the offensive line and devote resources to the “Hog Mollies’’ — meaning he would build the team along the offensive and defensive lines. His plan on the offensive line never materialized, and that failure, more than anything else, led to the further demise of the franchise.
“He was a guy that pretty much stuck to his guns,’’ Rivera said. “Maybe a little stubborn once in a while. But he was true to form. I really appreciate that he never lied to me. I loved his honesty, how forward he was about things. Loved the fact that he loved Hog Mollies, big guys. He had this saying: ‘Big guys allow you to compete,’ and lo and behold that was one of the things that he did, because I remember when we drafted [in 2013] two defensive tackles back to back. It was one of those things where you sit there and you go, ‘Man, we took Kawann Short and Star Lotulelei back-to-back,’ yet it panned out for us. That was probably one of the final pieces we needed as far as our team was concerned. It really paid dividends for us.’’