Commanders coach Ron Rivera says Jack Del Rio apologized to team for Jan. 6 'dust-up' comments

Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera said defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio addressed the team Tuesday morning and apologized about comments he made last week in which he referred to the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt as a “dust-up.”

Del Rio has faced harsh criticism for the comments and was fined $100,000 on Friday. They followed a tweet he sent June 6 in which he compared the Jan. 6 Capitol attack to protests linked to the killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020.

“Jack spoke to the team this morning during the team meeting,” Rivera said Tuesday during a press conference. “He was very open, very forthright, very contrite and apologized and opened himself up to questions or opportunities for any players to come in and meet with him. He has already met with some of our players and talked to some of them about what was said. I’ve been told those meetings went very, very well. And so I’m pleased with that.”

Rivera added that he felt Del Rio’s remarks were “well received” and said Del Rio closed by encouraging any other players who had questions to feel free to reach out to him.

OPINION: January 6 was a coup attempt, not a 'dust-up'

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Rivera has also faced some criticism from those who felt that Del Rio’s punishment was too light. On Wednesday, he mostly declined to get into specifics about his thought process in handing down the fine.

“This is not the fact that he exercised his right to free speech,” Rivera said. “This is about him impacting the football team. I respect the First Amendment. I have a tremendous amount of respect for it. If you guys haven’t read it, read it. I’ve read it again, over and over the last few days. I really, truly have. I have a copy of it sitting right now on my desk. …

“The realization is that when you as an American are free, you’re granted specific freedoms. But with those freedoms come tremendous responsibility, and we have to understand that as well. 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.”

Though Del Rio has since deleted his Twitter account, this all started when he posted a tweet to his then-verified account June 6 that was in response to an article about the Jan. 6 committee.

"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 ???" Del Rio tweeted, referring to the wave of mostly peaceful protests that came in the summer of 2020 following the May 25 death of Floyd. "#CommonSense."

Then, when Del Rio was asked about it two days later, he doubled down on his stance. As his comments from the press conference circulated online, Del Rio and the Commanders organization started to face public backlash.

"I'm being respectful," he said June 8 in the news conference. "I just asked a simple question. Let's get right down to it: What did I ask? A simple question. Why are we not looking into (the protests), if we're going to talk about (the Capitol attack). Why are we not looking into those things?

"It's kind of hard for me to say, I can realistically look at it. I see images on the TV, people's livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down, no problem. And then we have a dust-up at the Capitol, nothing burned down, and we're going to make that a major deal."

On Jan. 6, 2021, a crowd mobbed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election in which Democratic candidate Joe Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump. Five people died during the riot, in which thousands breached the perimeter and stormed the Capitol building. Two officers who responded to the attack later died by suicide.

Federal prosecutors have charged more than 800 people in 48 states with participating in the attack. A House committee was created to investigate the attack and has held a series of hearings.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jack Del Rio apologizes to Commanders team for Jan. 6 comments