The Washington Commanders' path to securing support from politicians across Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia for public funds and tax breaks was always going to be an uphill climb. But some controversial comments by the team’s defensive coordinator may have halted ongoing talks with some politicians.
According to The Team 980’s Kevin Sheehan, Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio’s comments minimizing the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, may have had a more immediate impact on completely sinking the talks between the Washington organization and Virginia legislators than previously thought.
Del Rio in a pair of tweets and later comments to the media at the team’s minicamp in early June called the attack on the Capital a “dust-up” and said the event was not worse than protests after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. In Virginia, the Commanders were shopping for political support in the hopes of securing funding for possibly three different locations in the Commonwealth.
By the time Del Rio made his comments, the organization had already lost support from key allies but were still in talks to revive the bill before the legislative session ended.
“On that day where Jack Del Rio made the comment, there are people [in the know] who have told me that Washington was literally in discussions, in meetings, with the Virginia authorities about the level of Virginia’s commitment to a stadium,” Sheehan said Thursday. “During that discussion, it came to light that Jack Del Rio had made those comments about Jan. 6 being a mere ‘dust-up’ and they immediately ended the conversations and said, ‘nope.’”
Sheehan said it was that day that the key Democratic state senators in Virginia said no to legislation, before adding that at the time the bill was already taking on water as politicians, like Sen. Chap Petersen, balked at getting involved with the Commanders in late May, prior to Del Rio's comments.
“I was told by multiple sources that those comments were actually the nail in the coffin and it wasn’t dead yet with key Democratic state senators in Virginia with respect to the stadium,” Sheehan said.
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Jeremy McPike, who had already said he was a 'no' on the bill, publicly stated on the day of Del Rio's comments, that they "sealed the deal" on his vote.
The Democratic Party currently holds a slim majority in the upper house of the Virginia general assembly and the stadium legislation was tabled and was not passed before the end of the 2022 session.
“It was still going to be a hard nut to crack,” he added. “But they were literally in the moment sitting down with key members of the organization when it came to light Jack Del Rio had made those comments and the state senators, Democratic state senators said, ‘yeah, this is over now.’”
In the days following those comments, Del Rio, who at first doubled down on his comments, apologized, the NAACP called for his resignation or termination, and Commanders head coach Ron Rivera fined him $100,000. The fine money was donated to the United States Capitol Police Memorial Fund.
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