Ron Rivera successfully transformed from a solid player into a decorated head coach in the NFL for the Washington Commanders before the Commanders fired Rivera in January 2024. In fact, from becoming a Super Bowl XX champion as a player, Rivera eventually became a two-time NFL Coach of the Year winner years later as the main man on the sidelines, which has helped him amass a net worth of $10 million.
But given his ups and downs in life, beside him is a supportive partner who has been with him all the way. Let's get to know more about Ron Rivera's wife Stephanie Tamayo.
Who is Ron Rivera's wife Stephanie Tamayo?
Ron Rivera's wife is Stephanie Tamayo. Given that Rivera likes to keep his personal life private, only a limited amount of information is known to the public about his wife Stephanie Tamayo.
However, we do know that Tamayo was born in Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Calif. She eventually attended the University of California, where she played college basketball and took up the point guard position for the Golden Bears.
Unfortunately, Tamayo's basketball career came to an end when she tore her ACL. Tamayo eventually graduated from Cal with a bachelor's degree in psychology.
Stephanie Tamayo's basketball coaching career
After completing her college education at Cal, Tamayo was hired by the Chicago Twisters of the now defunct Women's Basketball Association as the head coach. In the 1995 season, Tamayo led the women's squad to a dominant 14-1 win-loss card, going all the way to win the final WBA title.
Since then, Tamayo took up assistant-coaching positions, one with the now defunct American Basketball League's Chicago Condors and another with Trinity University. However, her biggest assistant-coaching gig has to be with the WNBA's Washington Mystics for the 2000 season.
In Tamayo's lone season with the Mystics as an assistant coach, Washington made the playoffs for the first time in WNBA history, after posting a 14-18 win-loss record to become the fourth-best team in the regular season. Unfortunately, the New York Liberty swept the Mystics in two games during the first round.
But after just one season with the Mystics, Tamayo decided to leave her assistant-coaching duties. Tamayo decided to shift her focus on mentoring the youth, in terms of the AAU and the women's basketball high school levels. This included Cathedral Catholic High School, where Tamayo was able to coach her daughter.
Stephanie Tamayo marries Ron Rivera
Given that the couple attended Cal together, it wasn't a surprise there was a chance that they both met there. Initially, both Rivera and Tamayo only passed each other at the university's sports facilities. However, that all changed when they both started to interact with each other.
In an interview with the Charlotte Observer, Tamayo gave a glimpse of the conversation by saying “When we met, I was like, ‘So, do you start? What position do you play?’ I had no idea he was a preseason All-American.”
After the conversation, Tamayo invited Rivera to play some pickup basketball with a group of friends. This eventually led to a romantic relationship.
In the same interview, Tamayo recalled “We played pickup three days in a row, and then the third day, he finally asked me on a date.”
In 1984, the couple got engaged. Around the same time, Tamayo also suffered the torn ACL that ended her basketball career as a player. However, that also led Tamayo to pushing their marriage.
During the interview, Tamayo revealed I’m like, ‘OK, I’m done,’ I told Ron, ‘I don’t want to go through rehab and all that other stuff. Let’s get married. I’ll take a semester off and see what this married life is all about.’”
Since then, the couple has been happily married. The couple currently has two kids together. But despite being married for several years, Tamayo continues her support for her football husband. In fact, Rivera confessed that he practices a gesture every game to honor his wife after every game.
Still with Charlotte Observer, Rivera describes his ritual “It started way back when I was a player with the Bears. The family tickets were between the 30- and 50-yard line, right behind our bench, halfway up, and she just happened to have two really good seats right around the 45-yard line. All I had to do is turn and look, and I could see her. … It’s just something we’ve always done.”
Furthermore, even when Rivera was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in 2020, Tamayo certainly played an instrumental role in helping her husband become cancer free roughly a year later. In fact, Rivera revealed that Tamayo and his family were his major support system that allowed him to survive the ordeal.
Stephanie Tamayo's Philippine roots
Like her husband, Rivera, Tamayo opened up about how the Filipino culture impacted her upbringing. Tamayo revealed that her grandparents worked in the military. In fact, her Filipino great grandfather served in the military during World War I. On the other hand, her grandfather Brigido Tamayo also answered the call of duty for World War II.
In an interview with the Washington Commanders, Tamayo described her grandfather, “He was not only the cook on board, but he was also the barber. So lots of strangers came by our house, and he would cut their hair.”
Despite growing up miles away from the Philippines, Tamayo doesn't have a hard time forgetting her Filipina roots. With a heartwarming Filipino population in Mare Island, their mere presence is enough to remind her about the culture, which hinges on family values.
In the same conversation with the Commanders, Tamayo added “Everybody is your auntie or your cousin. If they're the same age as you, they're your cousin. It doesn't matter.”
Nevertheless, this is all the information that we have on Ron Rivera's wife Stephanie Tamayo.