Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera plans to continue coaching as he undergoes three more weeks of cancer treatment.
Rivera was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer in back in August, but he has been told by doctors that it was caught early enough and that his prognosis is good.
Rivera discussed his intentions during an appearance on ‘Good Morning America’.
“It’s who I am,” Rivera said Monday, according to ESPN’s John Keim.” “Listening to the doctors talking about how important it is to try and do as much of the routine as possible, but they also tell you, ‘Hey, be careful, listen to your body.’ And also, there’s other people watching me, so I’m just trying to set the example.”
River says that he has one more round of chemotherapy in the final three weeks.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Rivera said. “As [late ESPN anchor] Stuart Scott said, I have it; it doesn’t have me. And it’s not how far I have to go, but it’s how far I’ve gone.”
“When I first was diagnosed, I was angry; and then as I’ve gone through this, it’s always, ‘Well, why me?'” Rivera said. “But as people have reached out, have talked to me, have given me their examples or just sent their well wishes, it helps push me forward. And I think that’s so important, ’cause when you go through something like this, you need a support system. And when you have the right type of people pushing you — man, I’ll tell you what, it really helps to get your momentum going forward.”
Rivera also discussed his desire for affordable health care in the United States.
“There’s so much that goes into this, and so expensive, that if we don’t have quality health care in our country — we’re the richest country in the world, [so] we should,” Rivera said. “And everybody deserves the opportunity to fight, and fight with everything that they’re given. And this is the opportunity now. So people got to go out and they’ve got to vote, they’ve got to vote their conscience, because it’s important.”
