Panthers’ Ron Rivera aiming to make a bit of history at Super Bowl

Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera is a proud member of the ’85 Chicago Bears, considered by many to be the greatest team the NFL has ever seen. Rivera, drafted in 1984, played nine season in the league, all with the Bears, and had Mike Ditka as his coach and mentor during that time.

Ditka is currently one member of a pretty small fraternity, but on Sunday, Rivera could join his old coach.

Ditka, Tom Flores and Tony Dungy are the only men who were part of a Super Bowl-winning team as a player and also was head coach of a team that won a Super Bowl.

A Hall of Fame tight end, Ditka was on the Super Bowl VI-winning Dallas Cowboys, and won Super Bowl XX with the “Super Bowl Shuffle” Bears. Flores got his championship as a player in his final season, backing up Len Dawson when the Kansas CIty Chiefs beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV; as head coach of the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, he guided the team to wins in Super Bowls XV and XVIII.

Flores was the first minority head coach to win a Super Bowl, and Rivera could join him as the second head coach of Hispanic origin to deliver a title.

And Dungy, who had a brief playing career, was a safety and special teams player with the Pittsburgh Steelers when they won Super Bowl XIII. Nearly 30 years later, Dungy was head coach of the Indianapolis Colts when they won Super Bowl XLI.

Not surprisingly, Rivera said last week he will draw on some of the lessons he learned from Ditka during that ’85 Bears playoff run. That includes telling his players what his told them all season: to be themselves.

“They’re going to embrace it,” Rivera said. “It’s really a matter of managing it more than anything else. They’ve earned it. They deserve it. But the thing we’ve got to remember is what we’re playing for, and that’s to win it.

“It’s not about getting there. It’s not about being a part of it. It’s about winning it. And that will be our main focus.”