After his comments last week about the Jan. 6 incident at U.S. Capitol, Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio was fined $100,000 by head coach Ron Rivera.
The head coach spoke about it this week at Commanders minicamp, and Rivera immediately made it known the fine was not because of Del Rio’s rights to make the comments, but how they adversely affected the franchise.
Just so everybody understands, this is not the fact that he exercised his right to free speech," Rivera said. "This is about what impacted the football team, OK? This is about the impact that was made on our football team, the distraction it has become. It's a very serious question and topic but at the end of the day, it did impact us and that's why I did what I did."
The head coach did note that he’s been studying the First Amendment “over and over the last few days,” but told Del Rio that “he has to understand that with these rights, these freedoms, come tremendous responsibility."
Rivera also said that he and Del Rio have discussed the situation at length, and the defensive coordinator also addressed the team about the issue on Tuesday.
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“He was very open, very forthright, very contrite and apologized and opened himself up to questions or opportunities for players to come in and meet with him," Rivera said. "He has already met with some of our players and talked to some of them about what was said and I've been told those meetings went very, very well."
Del Rio has since deleted his Twitter account – a personal decision, not a mandate from the organization, Rivera noted – and the matter is considered closed.
"This was not communicated any other way other than Jack and I had a conversation that'll remain between the two of us," Rivera said.
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