Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera is fining defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio $100,000 for comments made earlier this week in which he referred to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection as a “dust-up”.
“This morning I met with Coach Del Rio to express how disappointed I am in his comments on Wednesday,” Rivera said in a statement tweeted by the Commanders. “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 results of a free and fair election, and as a result, lives were lost and the Capitol building was damaged.”
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) June 10, 2022
“I can look at images on the TV, people’s livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down, no problem,” Del Rio said in a Wednesday press conference. “And then we have a dust up at the Capitol, nothing burned down, and we’re going to make that a major deal.”
Del Rio apologized for his comments later that day, but it wasn’t clear if the Commanders organization would take any action against him for the statement.
— Jack Del Rio (@coachdelrio) June 8, 2022
Rivera said Del Rio’s $100,000 fine will be donated to the United States Capitol Police Memorial Fund.