Jack Del Rio’s tenure as Washington Commanders defensive coordinator is off to a rocky start, at least from a public relations standpoint.
Del Rio is already in apology mode after comments made on Wednesday during a press conference, where he referred to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as a “dust up.” Del Rio’s comments came after he sent out a tweet on Monday, lamenting the fact that there is more criticism over what happened at the U.S. Capitol than incidents that took place during the George Floyd protests.
“Why are we not looking into those things — if we’re going to talk about it — why are we not looking into those things?” Del Rio 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 dustup at the Capitol, nothing burned down, and we’re going to make that a major deal. I just think it’s kind of two standards, and if we apply the same standard and we’re going to be reasonable with each other, let’s have a discussion. That’s all it was. Let’s have a discussion.”
The content of the tweet that Del Rio was asked about was as follows:
“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??? #CommonSense.”
It only took a couple hours after the press conference for Del Rio to issue an apology on social media.
“I made comments earlier today in referencing the attack that took place on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. Referencing that situation as a dust-up was irresponsible and negligent and I am sorry,” Del Rio said in a statement posted on Twitter. “I stand by my comments condemning violence in communities across the country. I say that while also expressing my support as an American citizen for peaceful protest in our country. I have fully supported all peaceful protests in America.
“I love, respect, and support all my fellow coaches, players, and staff that I work with and respect their views and opinions.”
Del Rio is a native of Hayward, CA and spent three seasons (2015-2017) as the Raiders’ head coach.