Ron Rivera still set on changing the culture in Washington

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USA TODAY Sports

The mess Ron Rivera walked into in Washington may be far greater than he ever anticipated. Nevertheless, Rivera remains steadfast in his commitment to create a new culture for the franchise into the future.

Even in the few months he’s been in the job, Rivera has had to shepherd the team through a number of significant news cycles. The racist team name was finally shown the door, allegations of sexual misconduct against front office executives and the team’s play-by-play voice were levied, Rivera revealed he’s been diagnosed with cancer of the lymph nodes, Jason Wright was named as the team’s new president, and then allegations came against owner Dan Snyder regarding misconduct toward female employees, specifically former cheerleaders.

And that’s just in the last two months.

But Rivera wants to see the change through with Washington and hopes to be a key part of turning the fortunes around across all aspects of the organization.

“You know a lot of things have happened before I got here,” Rivera said, via Ben Standig and Rhiannon Walker of the TheAthletic.com. “A lot of things have happened since I got here. I’d like to deal with those things that happened by really just going forward. I get it, I understand it, but we’ve got to create some change and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying some things, we’re changing the way we’re doing things, we’re changing the culture.”

It’s not the first time Rivera has pledged to change the culture in Washington. Snyder has pledged a new culture for the team as well.

The harder part will actually be accomplishing it and finding success. The football team itself has been largely unsuccessful since the early 1990’s with just five playoffs appearances and two victories since 1993. Meanwhile, Snyder’s oversight of the organization as a whole has been rife with missteps as well. Frequent turnover in the front office, massive free agent flops, numerous head coaches dismissed, the Scot McCloughan relationship souring, the Bruce Allen era, and the latest string of allegations just some of those issues.

Rivera said he intends to make sure what is necessary is done to move forward once the investigations are complete.

“I think the biggest thing, more so than anything else, is I can ensure you Mr. Snyder, Jason and myself, we take these allegations really seriously. We really do,” Rivera said. “We have an ongoing investigation. We’ll wait until we get the results of that investigation, and if any more action needs to be taken we’ll take it.”