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- Mar 16, 2019
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It’s going to be hot enough in Spartanburg, S.C., this week.
Panthers coach Ron Rivera wants to make sure there’s no added heat in his joint practices with the Bills.
Via David Newton of ESPN.com, Rivera said he won’t tolerate any fights in the joint practices with a team he’s fairly familiar with.
“If anybody fights then we’ll pull them out and throw them out of practice and they’ll have to be disciplined,” Rivera said. “We’re not here to fight. That’s bulls—.
“What we’re here to do is learn from each other and help each other win. That’s the most important opportunity to come out of this.”
Bills coach Sean McDermott used to be Rivera’s defensive coordinator, so he likely has a clear sense of what his counterpart is expecting.
But with temperatures (and humidity) soaring, it’s going to be a charged environment anyway for the next two days, and the staffs are going to meet in advance to make sure the emphasis is clear.
“Hey, we’re not here to fight. We’re here to help each other get better. The truth of the matter is we don’t face each other, and if we do that means we’re both in the Super Bowl,” Rivera said. “It’s a great opportunity to work against somebody different, somebody you don’t know and they don’t know you. So you’ve got to line up and play true football.
“To me, a guy fights out of frustration because he’s getting beat, because he’s getting stopped. I don’t want it.”
After a few minutes in the South Carolina humidity, the Bills probably won’t either.