'He beat cancer and the Cowboys': NFL coach Ron Rivera rings bell two months after cancer diagnosis
The Washington coach did not miss a single game throughout his seven weeks of treatments
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Your support makes all the difference.The Washington Football Team has a lot to celebrate this week. One day after beating the Dallas Cowboys, the team's head coach, Ron Rivera, commemorated a different kind of win: the end of his cancer treatment.
Rivera received his final round of chemotherapy on Monday, marking the end of seven weeks of treatments. As he left the hospital in Virginia, the coach walked through a line of cheering staffers who tossed confetti and sported "Rivera Strong" shirts in solidarity.
The Washington Football Team shared a video of the celebratory moment on Twitter, which culminates with the coach ringing the bell on the wall of the Inova Schar Center Institute, signifying the end of his treatment.
The NFL coach also commemorated the milestone on Twitter, sharing his own photo of the special moment.
"'Inspirational' is casually thrown around, but this is the real thing," Washington team president Jason Wright tweeted on Monday. "The complexities of culture change on a young team, a (weird) NFC East race, a pandemic, while fighting [with] your family, emotionally & physically, on a journey to health… We bear witness to something special."
Rivera, 58, announced in late August that he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer. He has continued to coach throughout his seven weeks of treatments, and did not miss a single game.
Rivera still faces several weeks of follow-up appointments and scans, but said last week that doctors have told him he is "headed in the right direction."
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