Ron Rivera

“My oldest brother was a police officer.”

“My family nickname is 'Mr. Safety.' I mean, I check everything. Is everything off, is it put away where it's supposed to be?”

“He wasn't a football player, but my idol growing up was Roberto Clemente. The man died trying to help out earthquake victims in Nicaragua and that left a huge impression on me.”

“The NFL has done a great job of promoting the popularity of the game. There now are youth leagues in Puerto Rico and Mexico. You're starting to see more and more young men with Hispanic surnames come into the NFL and that's a wonderful thing.”

“A dream is what you fantasize about. It's what you hope for, but a vision is what you plan for. You map out and you have a set of goals, and you go out and you execute that plan to achieve your vision.”

“I know that somewhere along the line, if I get things in my favor, I think I can be successful.”

“You have to find the sideline-to-sideline guys who can play every down.”

“Not everybody will get a chance to play in this league. You know, there's a transition rate of about 300 guys a year, that come into the league and leave the league. So the average career expectancy is a little bit under four years, so that doesn't mean you're gonna play forever.”

“Someone once told me you don't know about cancer until it touches you. That's when it touched my brother, Mickey. There's nothing like it. When it touches you, it's overwhelming.”

“You apologize for losing in the playoffs, but you don't apologize for getting in.”

“To have two separate game plans, you're asking for way too much of your team. That's why it's important to have quarterbacks that know your system, understand your system and have been a part of your system.”

“The numbers are there just to help you - at the end of the day you've still got to make the decision. There are certain things the numbers can't quantify: They can't quantify injuries, they can't quantify the weather, they can't give you a number on whether the referee's going to make a good call or a bad call.”

“My mom's side of the family was farm workers.”

“It's funny. At one point you've got a 14-game winning streak and people doubt you, then you lose one game and people doubt you even more.”

“There are not a lot of true defensive ends like there used to be.”