There’s not much that needs to be said about Jack Del Rio today.
If you somehow missed it, the Washington Commanders defensive coordinator put on his bravest, most patriotic face and stood up for the time-honored American value of publicly discussing an issue you’ve applied no rigorous thought to, but dang, man, you’ve felt some things deep in your gut — like a cold Budweiser on a hot day — and that’s good enough!
In this instance, Del Rio shared his perspective on the would-be insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. He called this event, which attempted to overthrow the United States government and resulted in death and trauma, a “dust-up.”
Commanders Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio:
"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 dust up at the Capitol, nothing burned down, and we're going to make that a major deal." pic.twitter.com/99mF3uxUTD
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 8, 2022
Most people saw this as the racist dog whistle it was and excoriated Del Rio on Twitter. If you’re here simply because you want to laugh at this pathetic failure of logic, scroll down.
If you’ve come for a different reason (one other than “let’s find this author’s email and own a lib!”) then we can break this down quickly.
Del Rio is comparing the insurrection to years of protests held across the country in response to the deaths of Black men at the hands of police. It is true that in some of those instances buildings were burned — among them a CVS in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray. I walked by it the next day, thinking of the pain caused to a giant corporation and its insurance company.
Actually, no, I walked by and talked to people nearby, and they told me stories of years upon years of unfair treatment by police. Treatment that robbed them of their freedom and anything approaching the right to pursue happiness. Their accounts have since been corroborated by investigations into that police corruption, which subsequently became books and, most recently, a series on HBO.
The failed insurrection, meanwhile, was a political plot meant to prevent the installation of a new president. It was fomented by the defeated president and his supporters based on a series of lies meant to undermine the election process that has been the foundation of this country since its founding. It did, in fact, cause property damage, in case that sort of thing really matters to you.
It also left people dead. Four of the rioters died on the day of the attack. One police officer was attacked and died of a stroke. Four others died by suicide in the wake of the violence.
Some dust-up.
Del Rio trying to pin up his awful opinions with some appeal to civility is disgusting — and not only because the civility he’s talking about has largely been denied to the Black people he’s pointing his fingers at. What hurts the most about it is that men like Del Rio keep getting jobs in the Good Old Boy world of football using precisely this kind of logic, while Black coaches have to work five times as hard just to get a sliver of a chance.
He’s just being reasonable. He’s just encouraging dialogue. This is what leaders do! He’s a fine, upstanding man, unafraid to say what he means and mean what he says!
Except that Del Rio defending the Jan. 6 insurrectionists is the equivalent of him going over to the NFL offices and fighting everyone he sees because he no longer wants to believe he’s 93-94 with a single measly playoff win in 12 seasons as a head coach.
It means he doesn’t and won’t see anything clearly anytime soon. He’s gone. And while this should cost him his job, it’s not really going to matter — most of his ilk know to stay quiet. Why lash out when you have so much of the power?
Anyway, I promised you some good tweets. Here they are.