Yardbarker: Keith Rivers

Name the Bengals Top 10 Career Sack Leaders

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:00:05 -0500

In the spirit of Keith Rivers officially signing with the Bengals (and because tackle statistics have not been historically kept by the NFL), see how many of the Bengals career sack leaders you can name in 5 minutes. Even though he an LB, I bet that Rivers ends up on this list before his career is over. Note: Last names accepted as responses.

Rivers Deal Done?

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:46:15 -0500

Muckraker Mike says the Bengals and holdout first round pick Keith Rivers have reached a deal and that Rivers is en route to Cincinnati to sign it. On the other hand, Bengals.com's Geoff Hobson says that despite talks, no deal appears imminent Believe who you will. Me, I'm rooting for Mike.

Bengals, Rivers Close to Deal?

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:02:26 -0500

Muckraker Mike says the Bengals and first-round pick Keith Rivers are closing in on a contract and that Rivers could be in camp by tomorrow. Stay tuned.

The Routine

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:06:18 -0500

One of the reasons I like to watch extra film is that when we go through the film as a group there isn't enough time to get a chance to really watch all of your reps closely. I always want to improve and being able to see what you're doing on film and correcting your mistakes is important to me. We watch practice film as a group between practices or if we practice at night then the next morning. There's so much to watch that you can't possibly watch all of your reps. I will stay a little later at night and go through my stuff on my own. Definitely helps me prepare for the next day. Our routine is probably similar to most teams. We're up at 6:15 and leave for the stadium. We have a special teams meeting at 8 and then offense and defense meetings. Then we have position meetings until 9:30. We're on the field from 10-12, get lunch and some treatment then try to squeeze in a nap. We're back at the stadium at 3:00 for meetings. At 5:00 we break for dinner and then we got to our team meeting at 5:45. We get different speakers and presentations during that meeting. That's the meeting Joe Theismann came to and we had a presentation about all of the uniform rules the other day. We hit the field again for practice from 7-9, get a little treatment, grab a late night snack at the hotel and go to bed and do it all over again. I just wanted to let you all know that I'm really looking forward to blogging my entire rookie season with the Jaguars and being apart of Yardbarker's Rookie Roundup. My USC teammate Keith Rivers will be doing it along with former Cal guy Lavelle Hawkins, and also Darren McFadden. More to come...

Announcing Yardbarker's "Rookie Roundup"

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:07:23 -0500

Yardbarker has rounded up four of this year's NFL rookies to blog about their rookie seasons. "Rookie Roundup" has offense, defense, two first-round selections, and two top-10 picks: Oakland Raiders RB Darren McFadden, Cincinnati Bengals LB Keith Rivers, Tennessee Titans WR Lavelle Hawkins, and Jacksonville Jaguars LB Thomas Williams. Darren, Keith, Lavelle and Thomas will post stories, photos and video throughout the season, giving the Yard an inside look at what it's really like to be a rookie in the NFL. Content will be updated regularly (weekly, sometimes daily) so be sure to visit often. These guys will continue to publish regularly on their blog pages (i.e. profile pages); however, you can now also visit the link associated with this article (http://www.yardbarker.com/group/column/1) to check out all of their posts in one place. Add the "RookieRoundup" profile as a favorite (or add the players individually). The Yard is excited to be a part of Darren's, Keith's, Lavelle's and T-Will's rookie seasons. - Dewey PS: Don't be entirely surprised if we add at least one more rookie to the mix. No promises, though, so don't hold me to it... see you 'round the Yard.

Trojan Horse: An Interview with Keith Rivers

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:03:36 -0500

James Christensen of NE Patriots Draft chats with Keith Rivers about his visit with the Patriots, his position in the NFL, and what he'll be up to on Draft Day.

Saying goodbye to USC

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:31:20 -0500

I want to say to my teammates who are entering the Draft and who I have played with over the past four or five years, I've enjoyed every second of it. Whatever team that they go to, the fans and the teammates are going to enjoy these guys just as much as I did. I enjoyed every memory that we had, every championship that we won, and every game that we played. I hope I get a chance to play with some of them again. Here is a video where Keith Rivers and I talk about some of the USC Draft prospects. You may have already seen this on Keith's blog... Thomas

Ken Norton, Jr... my coach and mentor

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:20:46 -0500

Ken Norton, Jr. has been both a coach and a mentor to me and my road dawg, Thomas Williams. We owe all of our success to him. He's taught us everything we know, and he's been there for us as a surrogate father since we're in college away from home, through the good times and the bad times. Thanks, Ken. Keith

Working hard at Pro Day

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:42:23 -0500

Thanks everyone for your comments and positive messages. If you haven't seen it already on T-Will's blog, check out this video from the day after Pro Day at USC. Me and Thomas Williams recap a hard day's work.

Pro Day Success

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:28:18 -0500

Here's a video filmed the day after Pro Day, me and my road dawg Keith Rivers talking football in the team room at USC.

First up, college degree... then the NFL

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:27:26 -0500

What's up, Yardbarkers? I'm excited to be joining the Yard. I'm a USC linebacker from Lake Mary, FL. I came all the way out to L.A. It's been a great four years. I'm excited to make the jump to the NFL. Just had Pro Day yesterday. Things went fairly well, and now I've got upcoming trips to visit with teams: New Orleans, New England, Detroit and Dallas. It's an exciting time but I've got to play the waiting game, and right now it all takes a back seat to finishing classes, taking finals, and getting a degree in public policy development. Keith

Keith Rivers is my road dawg

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:42:55 -0500

I said it the other day on my blog - Keith Rivers is my road dawg. We are in this together, preparing for the draft, and having that close relationship and experiencing the same thing at the same time makes a big difference. This has been a very long process. If you think about it, we really started this journey last July, working out with each other to get ready for our final season at USC. We wanted to send the message to everyone that USC is a linebacker factory. From July until now - that's a long time to be working like we have. He has been very inspirational to me and I am there to motivate him through the ups and downs - and there have been plenty of those. We work out together every day and we call or text each other two or three more times a day. We are constantly challenging each other to be better and keeping each other on our toes. I may get a call from him at night and he'll tell me he's going to wear me out the next day and I'll do the same thing. When we're running sprints we're always trying to beat each other or trying to make each other quit. Really both of us would rather pass out and fall over than let the other one know he won that day. Even though we're preparing for the same draft we are in two different boats. Keith will be a top 10 or 15 pick and I'm just hoping my name will be called. But we're doing this together. Without him this would be much more difficult and it wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Spring Break? What Spring Break?

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:15:36 -0500

It's spring break here at USC, but you won't find me or my road dawg Keith Rivers hanging in Cabo. We are working together every day to get ready for our Pro Day workout for the NFL scouts April 2. I flew to New Jersey this past weekend to meet with a personal trainer to get some pointers on the 40, 3-cone and short shuttle. I was there Sunday through Tuesday getting coached up on some techniques for those drills. Keith and I have the same routine. We wake up about 8, eat breakfast, get to campus about 9 or 9:15 to get stretched and warmed up and then we start our on field workouts at 10 sharp. We do not wait for each other so we arrive early and get loose. We work on the 3-cone and shuttle drills for about 35-40 minutes, go inside and lift weights and then come back out to do some special running drills. We did some resistance running today pulling each other 40 yards with the bungee cords. When we got out there yesterday Jerry Rice was on the field working out with a bunch of guys. He wasn't just watching, he was running drills, running routes, catching balls, he was doing the whole 9. For a guy 20 years older than us it was amazing to see how hard he works and what a perfectionist he is. I have heard all about his workouts before so getting a chance to see it was really cool. It was also very motivating for me and Keith. He is so inspirational and just seeing the way he works helped push us even more. We knew exactly what we needed to do - FINISH STRONG. When we get done with our running drills we go inside and get an ice bath to keep the body fresh. Then I head home and take a nap for a couple hours, relax and get ready for the next day. This Friday we're going to run the Coliseum stairs as part of our running routine. On Saturday we will head to a big hill in Brentwood at about 6 in the morning and run that. It will be an hour workout. Sunday we rest so that we're ready for Monday.

My NFL Dream Has Started...

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:24:35 -0500

I had my first individual team workout yesterday with the New England Patriots. They came in and visited with me at USC and worked me out. Even though it was my first workout and it was the Patriots I wasn't nervous at all. I was just excited. I mean I got to work out for an NFL team and that's part of the dream. They had me do 8-10 drills to see how my hips turn, how I catch the ball and how I break on the ball. In all, it lasted about 25 minutes. I think they were trying to get me tired but that's one of my strengths I don't get tired especially with all the work Keith Rivers and I have been doing with Coach Norton. But they asked me a couple times during the workout "Are you sure you're not tired? Do you need some water." No sir, let's keep going. I like this kind of stuff. I'm not a tester, I'm not a combine guy, I'm a football player, that's what I do. When you do drills like these you get to show that. They wanted to see if I could catch the ball and I caught every one of them. I'm not the fastest in the 40, but I'm fast getting to the ball because of my instincts and my desire. And I don't get tired. When you watch the film you see it. You see who wants to be there, who wants to be in the hole one on one. I believe in being accountable and I love being in those situations. This was a great experience for me. I was with their defensive coordinator and one of their scouts. We got a chance to talk on the way to the field. They asked me about my family and wanted to learn more about me as a person. They also wanted to learn more about my football background, positions I've played and what I've done on special teams. I really enjoyed it. I called Coach Norton right after to tell him how it went. I called Keith too, because he was working out with the Jets this morning. I wanted to let him know how it went and encourage him for his workout. Treat it like practice and don't get nervous. We never got nervous before practice before, you just go out and compete against yourself.