We all know freedom of speech is not an absolute without limits, right? We were taught that in civics class. A typical example used was how you can’t yell “fire!” in a crowded theater and cause a panicked stampede that gets folks trampled.
The lesson: Say what you will, but understand there might be consequences.
Jack Del Rio did, and there were.
And the NFL’s Washington franchise has its latest controversy. This would be the same club that changed its nickname from a racist one (Redskins) to a just plain bad one (Commanders). The team whose owner, Dan Snyder has been under a Congressional investigation and a league probe into sexual misconduct accusations. The attorneys general in Virginia and D.C. also are looking into allegations of financial impropriety by Snyder.
It is the one team that needs the most image scrubbing.
The one team that can least abide its very prominent defensive coordinator being tone-deaf-insensitive publicly and embarrassing a team still trying to get out from under an onslaught of that.
Del Rio’s dumb comments brought a sharp rebuke from head coach Ron Rivera along with a $100,000 fine.
Both were justified.
Del Rio is lucky he still has a job. Some, including the president of the NAACP, have called for him to resign or be fired.
The fine is just. A company or business (or sports league, or team) has the right to insist its employees represent it in a way that does not bring shame or cause embarrassment.
Del Rio’s trouble began on social media last week when he tweeted a response to Norm Eisen of The Brookings Institution, a prominent think tank.
Eisen was tweeting about the U.S. House Select Committee hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S.Capitol.
Del Rio volunteered that he evidently thought the hearings were much ado about nothing, later infamously referring to the insurrection as “a dust-up.”
Doubling down on the stupidity, the coach managed to also demonize the street demonstrations that erupted nationwide in protest of the police killing of George Floyd, and blamed the the Black Lives Matter movement.
Del Rio’s whole tweet: “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???”
It was the next day at training camp when he called the breaching of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob “a dust-up.” He said, “I can look at images on the 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.”
His $100,000 fine will go to the United States Capitol Police Memorial Fund, That is because three officers defending the Capitol were among the seven persons who died related to the “dust-up.”
Insurrection: “A violent uprising against an authority or government.”
Dust-up: You and the wife arguing in the car over where to go for dinner.
Ed Reed, the former Miami Hurricanes great and now chief of staff for the UM football program, blasted Del Rio in a tweet, saying “Today, I’m sick and tired! A dust-up! 100,000 us not enough.” Reed also seemed to suggest Washington players should speak out against Del Rio.
Rivera did instead.
“As we saw in the hearings, what happened on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was an act of domestic terrorism,” he said. “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.” He called Del Rio’s comments “extremely hurtful.”
Del Rio has since apologized, and deleted his Twitter account. Probably a good idea. Save him from himself.
Was there a lesson to be learned? Yeah, and it was a costly one. Maybe Del Rio now understands the difference between a dust-up and an insurrection.
