CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Ron Rivera remembers vividly when, as the defensive coordinator at San Diego, he pulled into a gas station after losing a close road game and saw quarterback Phillip Rivers in the automobile next to him.
Make that heard Rivers in the automobile next to him.
“I could hear him yelling into the phone,’’ the Carolina Panthers coach recalled as he looked ahead to Sunday’s game against Rivers and the San Diego Chargers. “He and his dad were talking about the game, and he was so excited about it.