Jack Del Rio, the defensive coordinator of the Team Formerly Known As Redskins, the Washington Commanders, is $100,000 poorer today, and he is lucky that he still has a job at all, for he has offended the gods of wokeness, and the gods of wokeness are angry and unforgiving gods.
Del Rio had the red, white, and blue temerity to downplay the seismic, world historical, cosmic, intergalactic significance of Jan. 6 and to wonder why the George Floyd riots didn’t get the same lavish attention that is being paid to the alleged “insurrection.” Now, this kind of impudent questioning of woke orthodoxy cannot stand, and Del Rio was not only fined but also forced to acknowledge and abjure his heresy. He did so, however, in a manner that may spell more trouble for him in the future.
On Wednesday, Del Rio aroused the ire of all those who think correct thoughts when he tweeted: “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 said: “Let’s have a discussion. 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 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.”
A “dustup”! Even “invasion” is not a strong enough word! Why, the earth was cleft asunder and the very heavens were shaken, and the pillars of what the Left calls “our democracy,” that is, their hegemony, tottered and would have fallen altogether had not those stalwart patriots, whose names will be sung by lovers of “democracy” throughout the ages, been there to hold them up. Pelosi! Schumer! Nadler! The heart swells, the soul is stirred, a tear comes to the eye at the names of these selfless heroes, who stood in the breach against the insurrectionist tanks and missiles — unless, of course, you’re a black-hearted, er, evil-hearted bigot on the level of Jack Del Rio, in which case you actually think that riots in which 25 people were killed and which caused $2 billion in damage are worse than events in which a handful of people were killed and minimal damage was done.
The reason why the establishment considers Jan. 6 to be so much more serious than the George Floyd riots is, of course, not because a guy in Viking horns with no weapons and no plan and no leader was going to overthrow the government, but because to pretend that the Capitol incident was an “insurrection” serves the Left’s agenda of stigmatizing and demonizing their legitimate political opposition.
Jack Del Rio probably knows that, and now he knows he is not allowed to say it. And so later on Wednesday, wanting to keep his job, he apologized. However, his apology was a masterpiece of careful wording. “I made comments earlier today in referencing the attack that took place on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. Referencing that situation as a dust-up was irresponsible and negligent and I am sorry. I stand by my comments condemning violence in communities across the country. I say that while also expressing my support as an American citizen for peaceful protest in our country.”
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Will the woke guardians of acceptable opinion notice that Del Rio stood by his condemnation of violent protests? Or that he retracted the word “dustup” but not his words about “why the summer of riots, looting, burning and the destruction of personal property is never discussed”? Probably. And then he will be consigned to the outer darkness. In the meantime, he has been put on notice. The Redskins, uh, the Football Team, uh, the Commanders, with their logo duly in gay rainbow colors, issued a statement ostensibly from head coach Ron Rivera, saying: “This morning I met with Coach Del Rio to express how disappointed I am in his comments on Wednesday.”
Why, the woke indoctrination Del Rio was supposed to have received was right there in prime time: “As we saw last night in the hearings, what happened on [sic] the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was an act of domestic terrorism. A group of citizens attempted to overturn the results of a free and fair election, and as a result, lives were lost and the Capitol building was damaged.” The only lives lost directly relating to the incident were among the protesters, but who cares for accuracy when the political line is being enforced?
Rivera claimed that Del Rio’s statements “hurt a lot of people in our community,” and intoned piously: “I want to make it clear that our organization will not tolerate any equivalency between those who demanded justice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the actions of those on Jan. 6 who sought to topple our government. … I feel strongly that after our conversation this morning, he will have a greater understanding for the impact of his language and the values our team stands for.” Del Rio had better show that he has been reeducated, or else next time, the axe will fall, and after that, who would dare to employ a wrongthinker?
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