It didn't come easy for the first Puerto Rican-born player in the NFL now turned Head Coach. He first had to throw out 'the book' according to this wonderful piece by Joe Posnanski.
I'm going to assume you are going to go read the piece as there is too much good stuff in it to give it justice with paraphrasing. Here's an anecdotal story related to Rivera's house fire then a couple of my favorite points:
Ron Rivera discovers the secret to coaching by throwing the book out | NBC SportsWorld
“Yeah, I’ve got something to say,” Rivera said, and then he looked at the players.