North: Ron Rivera deserves his NFL success
Chicago Bears fans have to be happy for Ron Rivera, a guy who was a good-but-not-great football player when he played here.
Rivera is a smart guy who wanted to coach badly enough that he volunteered to work under coach Dave Wannstedt just to gain experience toward a coaching a career.
I am thrilled that two guys I knew from Chicago, Rivera and Jim Harbaugh, both part of the Mike Ditka era, would end up coaching in NFL championships.
I realize that Rivera hasn't been to the Super Bowl as a head coach yet, but it's coming.
Even when Rivera worked behind the microphone on sports radio, he was prepared, funny and could take a joke. Who would have predicted years later that the man known as "Chico" would be coaching, and Wannstedt would be learning to master working behind the mic on Fox Sports?
Let's not forget that another former Bears player, Greg Olsen, is a stud and a Pro Bowl tight end with the Panthers. Didn't we all know he would be successful elsewhere after he left the Bears?
I couldn't be happier for Rivera, his wife Stephanie and his family on their success. He went after it, and now he's a few steps away from a Super Bowl. Congrats!
Big Ben:
Big Ben Roethlisberger didn't get it done for the Pittsburgh Steelers last weekend against Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos. Manning and Roethlisberger dueled it out, and the Broncos prevailed, 23-16.
Even with two Super Bowl rings to Ben's credit, we hear more about the great Tom Brady, five-time MVP Peyton Manning, two-time Super Bowl champ Eli Manning, the great Drew Brees and the reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers.
Oh, Ben will be mentioned at some point. Outside of Brady, though, I think Big Ben has been the QB of this generation, yet he gets little respect.
Big Ben has a blue-collar approach and a willingness to play hurt, as he did in Sunday's game.
I guess the best comparison I can give is Brady is Kobe Bryant while Ben is Tim Duncan when it comes to style and hype. Duncan and Roethlisberger do it with a grind-it-out style. They don't talk about it and ultimately the media doesn't either.
Many people rank the New England Patriots as the best organization in football, and deservedly so. The Steelers, with their six Super Bowl championships, are not a far off second.
Program notes:
Follow me on Twitter@ north2north, and listen to Fox Sports Daybreak with Andy Furman and myself from 5-8 a.m. Monday through Friday on Fox Sports radio, and check me out on iHeart radio or Foxsportsradio.com.
• North's column appears each Tuesday and Friday in the Daily Herald, and his video commentary can be found Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at dailyherald.com. For more, visit northtonorth.com.