Ron Rivera says Mountain Dew, Taco Bell helped him get through cancer treatment
When Ron Rivera announced he had squamous cell cancer in his lymph nodes, he hadn’t coached a single game for the Washington Football Team yet. It was Aug. 20 and he was staring down two months of cancer treatment, which he’d have to balance with coaching his team.
On Oct. 26, Rivera finished his treatment and hadn’t missed a single game. It wasn’t easy, and in an interview with ESPN, Rivera gave the credit to his family, his team, and the doctors, nurses, techs, and therapists who worked with him. He was also grateful to a few special friends who helped him get through some of the hardest times: Taco Bell and Mountain Dew.
Taco Bell and Mountain Dew helped Rivera eat
In addition to twice weekly chemotherapy treatments, Rivera underwent proton therapy five days a week. The side effects were debilitating. He had sores all over his mouth and needed to rinse with a mixture of water, baking soda, and salt to prevent them from getting infected. The treatment caused “crud” to build up in his throat, which made it incredibly difficult to swallow.
These side effects caused him to lose 32 pounds, but he did find things that helped him eat.
"For breakfast, I had pancakes and to help swallow, I had what amounted to three cups of syrup on the two pancakes," Rivera said. "Water tasted terrible. The only things I could truly drink were root beer and Mountain Dew. Those tasted normal and helped me eat from that point on. What's crazy is one of the foods that helped me get through this was Taco Bell tacos, for whatever reason."
His proton therapists were big fans
While the side effects of the proton therapy were really unpleasant, the treatment itself was no picnic. Five days a week he had to lay still in a small chamber with a mesh mask over his face while proton beams were targeted at his tumor. After a claustrophobic episode, Rivera started to get himself ready for treatments like he would a football game.
"From that point on," Rivera said, "every time I hear that first lock going into place my first thought was, 'Here we go, we're getting after it, let's go. Come on body, let's go. We're gonna kick its ass.'"
Rivera’s four proton therapists helped calm him down, and two, including Phillip Ihaza, were lifelong Washington fans. Ihaza had a lot of questions he wanted to ask Rivera, but forced himself to put a limit on football talk — even if it meant sacrificing an advantage in fantasy football.
"That was the hardest part for me," he said. "I had so much excitement of wanting to have conversations about football. I've been a big fan of [running back] Antonio Gibson; I wanted to see how he felt about him."
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"I was struggling with the moral aspect, 'Am I going to take advantage of this?" Ihaza said. "I believe in karma, so any little thing that could be looked at as cheating could affect me in the long run."
Rivera’s family helped him take control
Dr. Gopal Bajaj, who led Rivera’s radiation oncology team, told ESPN that Rivera got right after treatment.
"Cancer is a loss of control, and Coach kicked cancer's ass," Bajaj said. "He took control by doing everything perfectly, to a T. He was always at his appointments; always on time. He scheduled his cancer around the rest of his life and not the other way around."
Rivera’s wife Stephanie and daughter Courtney helped make that happen. One of them was with him at every treatment, and they constantly reminded him to eat and take care of himself. Washington was also supportive, making nutritionists, trainers, and doctors available, and accommodating Rivera’s treatment and recovery schedule.
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