Commanders head coach Dan Quinn spoke to reporters on Tuesday, but there were a few notable faces missing from the journalists in the room.
Quinn and the Commanders left a trio of empty seats open in the front row for Tuesday’s press conference in honor of the former sports reporters and beat writers for The Washington Post that were victims of the newspaper’s mass layoffs. Specifically, Quinn acknowledged the absence of Tashan Reed, Barry Svrluga and Tom Schad, all of whom were let go as part of the newspaper’s controversial decision to gut its sports section.
He kicked off the address by giving a shoutout to the former Post reporters, acknowledging that their absence was a big loss.
“First, a couple of empty seats over to my right. I was absolutely bummed to hear about The Washington Post’s sports section, so, guys like Barry, Tashan and Tom, true pros, along with everyone else I met there, their presence is missed.”
"Their presence is missed"
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) February 10, 2026
- DQ on the empty seats in the room for @PostSports
Thank you @barrysvrluga, @tashanreed, @Tom_Schad & so many others pic.twitter.com/dvnQvVMFmZ
It was a classy tribute to the newspaper’s dissolved sports section from Quinn and the organization, who made clear how much they appreciated the contributions made by the journalists.
The sports section at The Washington Post was eliminated along with various other sections of the newspaper in a recent wave of layoffs that, according to The Washingtonian, saw somewhere between 44% to 47.5% of its newsroom axed from their roles.
Svrluga posted on social media Tuesday after Quinn’s press conference and said that the Commanders coach had reached out to him, Reed and Schad last week with a “nice message.”
“Quinn texted the three of us with a nice message last week. Solid human instincts. Nice of him to do this for [Reed] and [Schad], too,” wrote Svrluga on X.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Dan Quinn Had Classy Gesture for Post Reporters After Sports Section Was Dissolved.
