CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Ron Rivera smiled as he was being asked about the overwhelming number of analysts and so-called experts that have predicted the Carolina Panthers won’t make it past Sunday’s NFC Wild Card playoff game at New Orleans.
He knew what he was going to say before the question was finished.
The person asking the question knew what the answer would be, too.
"That’s OK. We’ll show up," Rivera said.
He could have stopped there. But the seventh-year Panthers coach continued, obviously irked about the attitude outside of Bank of America Stadium that there’s basically no reason for his team to show up against a New Orleans team that handily won the regular-season meetings 34-13 and 31-21.