Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio defended a recent series of tweets by asserting his right to freely express himself as an American.
Del Rio made waves with a tweet on Monday that drew an equivalence between the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot and the nationwide protests that took place the summer preceding it that were sparked by the death of George Floyd. Replying to someone's tweet about the forthcoming Jan. 6 congressional hearings, Del Rio said, "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"
Del Rio held an open forum for reporters on Wednesday to discuss his Twitter activity, fielding a range of questions on the topic.
"Anything that I ever say or write, I'd be comfortable saying or writing in front of everybody that I work with, players and coaches," Del Rio began. "So, I expressed myself as an American. We have that ability. I love this country. I believe what I believe and I've said what I want to say, and every now and then there's some people that get offended by it."
"It's a slow news cycle, so I guess Mike Florio picked something up yesterday and talked about it," he continued. "It's not the first time Mike and I have disagreed about things. That's okay. But that's pretty much it. There's not a whole lot to it. But what I am excited about is what's going on right now with us and the way we're working, so football questions is where I'd like to focus. If anybody else wants to talk about other things, we can set something up at another time. That's kind of how I see it."
Reporter: "It seems like you like to express yourself in the offseason. It's been a couple years in a row. What is it about this time that makes you want to speak up on certain issues?"
"No particular time or thing about offseason or in-season," Del Rio said.
Reporter: "You took a stance that was counter to some players and how they felt in the summer of 2020. Are you worried at all about how your players would?"
"Nope," Del Rio said. "Not at all."
Reporter: "Do you think your stances reflect a lot of people that aren't putting those out there, out of fear or anything else?"
"Um, some people may be swayed by that," Del Rio said. "But, again, I'm gonna be the man I am and I operate here as a coach with nothing but love and respect for everybody I work with."
Reporter: "Coach, there are a lot of African Americans on your team. I know you said you're not really worried at all, but do you think it has any effect on them knowing their beliefs, and maybe the communities they come from, when it comes down to police brutality, knowing that you kind of compared those George Floyd protests with January 6th?"
"Uh, no. No. I don't think race had anything to do with that incident," Del Rio said. "So, no."
Reporter: "Well, not race, but in regards to just the race that believes and supports a Black Lives Matter movement. Are you concerned that some of those players are a little bit concerned about what your personal opinion is?"
"No. No," Del Rio said. "No, I'm not."
Reporter: "When you said 'that incident,' what did you mean?"
"I think we know what we're talking about here," Del Rio said. "There's really nothing else to add right now, guys. Anything else?"
After discussing football for several minutes, one reporter circled back to the previous discussion, saying, "Just for clarification, why is it not important to you, like if your players are concerned by what you'd said?"
"Well, IF they are, and they want to talk about it, I'd talk about it with anybody," Del Rio said. "Yeah, no problem. At any time. But they're not. I'm just expressing myself. And I think we all, as Americans, have the right to express ourselves. Especially if you're being respectful. I'm being respectful. I just asked a simple question."
"Let's get right down to it," he continued. "What did I ask? A simple question. Why are we not looking into those things? If we're gonna talk about it, why are we not looking into those things? Because it's kind of hard for me to say I can realistically look at it, I see the images on 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 not gonna talk about, we're gonna make that a major deal.
"I just think it's kind of two standards. And if we applied the same standard, and we're gonna be reasonable with each other, let's have a discussion. That's all it was. Let's have a discussion. We're Americans. Let's talk it through. I'm for us, you know? Having a great opportunity to have a fulfilled life. Like I said, every which way I can when I'm here, it's about love and respect. I love my guys. I respect my guys. But I also love the fact that I'm an American and that means I'm free to express myself, and I'm not afraid to do that."
Commanders head coach Ron Rivera was asked about Del Rio's tweets on Wednesday and responded thusly: "I'm not gonna talk about stuff that I talk to my coaches about, especially stuff that's off the field not pertaining to football. It's just, everybody's entitled to their opinion, though."
Del Rio also recently drew attention to himself for a tweet in which he responded to a critic by telling them to "bite deez."
You can listen to Jack Del Rio's press conference in full around the 33-minute mark in the above audio clip.
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