Never bow down before the Twitter mob

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June 14, 2022

by Steve Thomas

Why exactly did Jack Del Rio apologize?  Why did the team feel the need to fine him?  Why does Ron Rivera, a football coach, feel the need to educate the rest of us on domestic terrorism and how to feel about Black Lives Matters and the January 6 Capitol riot?  All of it disgusts me.

Before I spout off too much, let’s review the timeline of events in this latest Washington controversy.  Del Rio has since deleted his Twitter account, but the first thing that happened were some controversial tweets by Del Rio on Monday, June 6, the initial one stating, “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.”

Then, Del Rio later posted in a tweet that read, “Uhh yeah sure”, followed by an emoji with a Pinocchio nose, indicating that Del Rio believed the original poster was lying, in response to this tweet:

Then Del Rio expanded on those thoughts during his press conference with the local media on Wednesday, June 8.  As reported by NBC Sports Washington (click here to read), Del Rio stated:

“Why are we not looking into those things – if we’re going to talk about it – why are we not looking into those things?  I can look at image 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.”

As further reported by NBC Sports Washington, Del Rio stated the following in response to a question as to whether his players are put off by any of his tweets:

“If they are and they want to talk about it, I’d talk about it with anybody, but they’re not.  I’m just expressing myself and I think we all as Americans have a right to express ourselves, especially if you’re being respectful.  I’m being respectful.”

For his part, head coach Ron Rivera said that he would speak to Rivera if Del Rio’s tweets ever became an issue (quote courtesy of NBC Sports Washington):

“If it ever becomes an issue or a situation, we’ll have that discussion.  Right now, it’s something that I will deal with when it comes up.”

Del Rio was forced to issued an apology on Twitter later in the day on Wednesday:

Finally, on Friday, the team announced that Del Rio had been fined $100,000 in a statement from Rivera:

That’s the timeline of events, so let’s dive into the situation.  First, the idea that anyone in a public eye, particularly a person who’s ultimately in the entertainment arena, which is where professional football falls, feels the need to spout off about anything political is beyond me.  I don’t need a football coach, a basketball coach (shut up, Steve Kerr), or especially actors and musicians, try to educate me on social affairs or politics.  Most of those types are good at what they do, but are uneducated and uninformed about the issues of which they speak, and frankly many of them aren’t very smart.  All political and social talk does for them is make many of them look foolish and alienate people on the other side of the aisle.  It’s damaging to their profession, and normally just exposes their ignorance.  Stop it.  Seek help.  Insert the Michael Jordan meme here.

As to the substance of Del Rio’s comments, certainly, his word choice was suspect – referring to a riot in which one person lost her life on scene and others died later as a “dust-up” was insensitive and minimizes what happened that day.  That having been said, Del Rio was trying to compare the enormous scrutiny of an event that, while awful, ultimately was (1) a couple hundred people led by a guy in a Viking costume who clearly didn’t have any plan, (2) didn’t cause any serious damage or have any impact on the government, and (3) were gone in three hours or so, to the media and political coverage of the Black Lives Matter / George Floyd protests and riots, which undeniably destroyed countless businesses and did well over a billion dollars worth of damage nationwide.  I’m sorry, but that’s a fair question to ask.  You may not like it, you may not agree with it, you may despise me for even suggesting it, which is fine with me, but ask yourself this: was Del Rio really that far out of bounds to ask?  What happened here is that Rivera decided that one type of riot can be discussed but the other – the far more destructive one – isn’t allowed.  That’s not right.  If you can’t handle a legitimate question, then perhaps you need to adjust your perspective.  Just because you don’t like an opinion doesn’t mean someone else shouldn’t be able to say it without an online mob coming after him and screaming that he should be cancelled.

So much of social media is anonymous rabble rousing with a decidedly leftist political slant, with conservative thought intentionally minimized by the platform managers. It has become little more than an echo chamber of hate and stupidity.  The worst thing someone who becomes a target of the Twitter mob can do is apologize.  Just own the statement and ignore the noise, and eventually it will subside.  There’s no need to apologize to anyone if all you’ve done is express an opinion that doesn’t go over well on social media.  Apologizing in that instance won’t make the Twitter mob leave you alone, and it won’t make people leave Del Rio alone either.  Stand your ground.

As to the team, Washington should be ashamed of itself for fining Del Rio.  The team has really gone down a road of which I want no part. First, the team bowed to political pressure and changed the name from “Redskins” to “Washington Football Team” to the awful “Commanders”.  That was strike one.  Then, a week ago, the franchise donated money to a left-leaning anti-gun group called Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, which is a divisive position to take.  That was pretty polarizing for those of us on the side of keeping the Second Amendment intact.  And of course, that’s on top of the years of nonsense and awful spewing from the franchise both on and off the field, including the shameless abuse of female employees, which we’ve covered ad nauseum and disgusted a large swath of the fanbase, including me.  Why does this team have fans, again?

Just to be clear, though, in case this thought went through your head: this isn’t a First Amendment issue.  Private organizations can censor the speech of their employees at any time – they can censor the rights of employees to discuss January 6, anti-American flag protests, and anything else.  There’s no question that Washington had the legal right to tell Del Rio to stop talking and apologize, and it’s very likely that his contract has some sort of vague, “act in the best interest of the team” type clause that they can claim Del Rio violated that allows the fine.  The real issue is not “can they”, but rather, should they, censor an employee’s speech, particularly speech that’s placed on a private social media platform.  This is even more true when an opinion may be unartfully expressed and unpopular on social media.  Those are allowed as well; at least it should be.  So, yes, Washington has the right to do what they did, but there was absolutely no justifiable reason to do so.  Del Rio expressed an opinion that happened to be unpopular on Twitter and was punished as a result.

Honestly, all of these things, capped by this Del Rio incident, makes me not want anything to do with this franchise anymore, either as a fan or semi-media member.  This was a bit of a last straw.  Washington needs starting acting like a professional business organization.  They need to stop taking social and political positions.  Nobody cares – at least they shouldn’t care – what a football team thinks about social justice, politics, terrorism, or anything else not related to sports.  Just play.  Let the coaches and players say whatever they want on social media, but if those football coaches and players were smart, they’d delete their social media accounts.

Shape up, Washington, or you’ll see your remaining few fans ship out.