The football team known formerly as the Washington Redskins has fined defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio $100,000 for comments he made about the Jan. 6 protest.
Del Rio responded to a story on Twitter regarding the Jan. 6 Committee’s planned broadcast saying:
“Would love to understand ‘the whole story’ about why the summer of riots, looting, burning and the destruction of personal property is never discussed but this is ???”
Del Rio was then asked about that by reporters:
“I just asked a simple question,” he said. “Let’s get right down to it. What did I ask? A simple question. Why are we not looking into these things — if we’re going to talk about it — why are we not looking into those things? Because it’s kind of hard for me to say, I can realistically look at it, I see the images on TV. People’s livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down, no problem.
“And then we have a dust-up at the Capitol. Nothing burned down. And we’re going to make that a major deal. I just think it’s kind of two standards. And if we apply the same standard, and we’re going to be reasonable with each other, let’s have a discussion. That’s all it was. Let’s have a discussion.”
Commanders DC Jack Del Rio on his recent tweet (https://t.co/odv7zr4BOn) at today's media session
"Businesses are being burned down, no problem… and then we have a dust-up at the Capitol, nothing burned down… and we're gonna make that a major deal."@nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/zH39iSqHM8
— NBC4 Sports (@NBC4Sports) June 8, 2022
Del Rio apologized later in the day after making those comments, saying his characterization of the day as a “dust-up” was “irresponsible and negligent.”
— Jack Del Rio (@coachdelrio) June 8, 2022
Washington head coach, liberal Ron Rivera, announced the $100,00 fine and issued a statement.
“(Del Rio’s) comments do not reflect the organization’s views and are extremely hurtful to our great community here in the DMV,” Rivera said. “As we saw last night in the hearings, what happened on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was an act of domestic terrorism. A group of citizens attempted to overturn the results of a free and fair election, and as a result, lives were lost and the Capitol building was damaged. Coach Del Rio did apologize for his comments on Wednesday and he understands the distinction between the events of that dark day and peaceful protests, which are a hallmark of our democracy. He does have the right to voice his opinion as a citizen of the United States and it most certainly is his constitutional right to do so. However, words have consequences and his words hurt a lot of people in our community. I want to make it clear that our organization will not tolerate any equivalency between those who demanded justice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the actions of those on January 6 who sought to topple our government.”
