If Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera had it his way, his team would be starting the regular season at home, and it would not be a Super Bowl rematch.
The Panthers coach admitted that having to travel to Denver to deal with the circus that is a Super Bowl rematch — as part of a shortened week, no less — is not the scenario that he and his team would have preferred.
“We only have a week [to prepare] where other teams will have 10 days that you kind of need to have,” Rivera said, via ESPN’s David Newton. “It was a mad scramble trying to put your roster together and get your practice squad out there.
“I think it’s been 20-something years that the Super Bowl rematch, that people like to call it, is going to happen. Defending NFC champs, it would have been nice to open the season at home, but it didn’t happen that way.”
It is unquestionably a difficult situation for Carolina to be in. That said, Denver is dealing with a number of the same time-related issues, and unlike Carolina, they’re breaking in a new quarterback, too.
