Washington Commanders Coach Fined 100k By League For Calling Out Networks Running Jan 6th Hearings, Asks Why BLM Riots Were Not Treated The Same

Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera on Friday fined his defensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio, $100,000 for calling the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol a “dust-up” and referring to the racial justice protests of 2020 as a “summer of riots.”

In a statement attributed to Rivera and posted on the Commanders’ Twitter page, the NFL head coach said he was disappointed in Del Rio’s comments and said they hurt the community. The organization will not tolerate any comparison between that event and protests that followed George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, the statement said.

“As we saw last night in the hearings, what happened on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was an act of domestic terrorism,” the statement said, referring to Thursday’s primetime broadcast of the first public congressional hearing into the Jan. 6 riot.

The statement also 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. 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.”

Rivera’s statement then mentioned how Del Rio does have the right to express his opinions, but words have consequences. It also mentioned why protests that followed Floyd’s death while in custody of Minneapolis police were not a fair comparison to what happened at the U.S. Capitol.

“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,” Rivera said.