Ron Rivera feels ‘disrespected’ the Panthers didn’t open season at home

Fresh off winning the NFC Championship, the Carolina Panthers had to open the 2016 NFL season on the road. On Friday, head coach Ron Rivera aired out his grievances about the scheduling wrinkle.

In an interview with David Newton of ESPN on Friday, Rivera said he feels “disrespected” the team wasn’t allowed to open the season at home and instead had to travel to Denver for a Super Bowl 50 rematch with the Broncos.

“Forget the fact that you’re the defending NFC champs and you deserve to open up at home in front of your home crowd on opening week,” Rivera said. “We’re going to make you guys relive it for five more months. That’s how I felt. So for the next five months I’ve got to put up with it, deal with it, answer the questions and relive it constantly over and over and over. Honestly, it became a pain in the ass.

“I mean … we asked for certain things to help us out,” Rivera continued. “We didn’t get any of it. I’m disappointed. Let’s be honest. I’ve got a group of men in there that do the things that we ask the last five years, it’s been a battle to get to where we are … sometimes I feel disrespected.”

Rivera was vocal about his displeasure even before the 21-20 Week 1 loss. Unfortunately for him and the Panthers, a Super Bowl rematch was always going to generate the biggest buzz for an Opening Night matchup, so the NFL probably isn’t exactly kicking itself for scheduling it.