CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ These final four games of Carolina's season won't be the first time Perry Fewell has been an NFL head coach.
Fewell, the Panthers' defensive backs coach, was elevated to interim coach Tuesday after Ron Rivera was fired. Fewell has deep ties to the Charlotte area, attending high school at Belmont's South Point High in Gaston County and then at Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory for college.
Fewell, 57, was interim coach of the Buffalo Bills in 2009 after Dick Jauron was fired following a 3-6 start. Fewell, who had been the Bills' defensive coordinator, finished out the season with a 3-4 record before he and the rest of Jauron's former staff were let go.
That assignment with the Bills, starting in 2006, was Fewell's first as an NFL defensive coordinator.
He was then hired by Tom Coughlin to be the New York Giants' defensive coordinator, lasting five seasons including a run to the 2012 Super Bowl (a loss to the New England Patriots).
Since then, Fewell went back to being a defensive backs coach in Washington, Jacksonville (a reunion with Coughlin, now running the Jaguars front office) and this season with the Panthers.
