Rivera caps David vs. Goliath message with rock throw originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Taylor Heinicke completed 26 passes during Washington's win over the Buccaneers in Week 10, and many of them were awfully important.
Yet Heinicke's coach still might've had the best throw of the afternoon.
Following the upset victory, Ron Rivera pulled a rock out of his pocket as he was addressing the jubilant home locker room full of excited players. As Washington prepped for Tampa Bay's visit to FedEx Field, Rivera repeatedly emphasized that his team was David and the defending champs were Goliath — yet all David needed to knock off the giant was a stone.
In fact, a notecard pointing that out was left on each player's chair ahead of kickoff, according to Mike Silver. So, clearly, everyone on the roster knew what Rivera's message was surrounding the contest.
And when the coach took the stone out of his pocket postgame, everyone wanted him to do one thing.
"Throw the stone!" multiple guys hollered. "Throw it!"
At first, Rivera sheepishly shot down the idea. But he quickly reversed course, asked a few players to stand clear and proceeded to whip the object at a whiteboard:
Check out his mechanics on the throw, too. Very clean, right?
The challenge for Washington will be to replicate that kind of energy and focus this Sunday against Carolina sans any sort of themed rallying cry. The challenge for that whiteboard, meanwhile, will be to heal up following the hit it took on Sunday.
