Two days after Washington defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio doubled down on his comments that described the January 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol as a “dust-up”, the team’s head coach strongly condemned the comments of his assistant, and fined him $100,000.
In a statement released by the team, coach Ron Rivera said:
“This morning I met with coach Del Rio to express how disappointed I am in his comments on Wednesday. His comments do not reflect the organization’s views and are extremely hurtful to our great community here in the DMV. 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 result 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 the 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 opinions 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 the government.”
