Jack Del Rio created a PR nightmare for the Washington Commanders last week when he tweeted out his thoughts on the January 6 insurrection. Head coach Ron Rivera tamped down the issue by announcing that he was fining Del Rio and donating the money to United State Capitol Police Memorial Fund. Del Rio also apologized and deleted his Twitter account.
Statement from Washington HC Ron Rivera on the fine of DC Jack Del Rio, via @Commanders: pic.twitter.com/p5pa4aMPz3
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 10, 2022
The move was largely seen as a positive one to help heal the situation. However, one person who does not think Rivera did the right thing is former NFL head coach and current Michigan Panthers head coach Jeff Fisher.
Fisher spoke with OutKick The Tailgate over the weekend and expressed his disappointment over the situation.
“Politics is getting into everything right now and it doesn’t need to,” Fisher recently said. “The Rivera and Del Rio stuff, I mean come on, give us a break…Leave that stuff alone, there’s too much going on right now.”
Fisher continued by not only saying Rivera shouldn’t have released a statement but refuted the fact that people lost their lives because of the events of that day.
“I went down the middle my whole career and I respected everybody for whatever they believed in and everyone should have an opportunity to talk about what they believe in,” Fisher said. “But to create narratives that aren’t true…on first glance, I was a little disappointed with Ron. I was teammates with Ron, and for him to come out, it was like some speech writer wrote his statement. And it’s not true. There were not deaths, like he mentioned…there weren’t deaths, and he put that in his statement…just tell the truth and if you don’t know it then keep your mouth shut.”
It’s unclear why Fisher would say there were no deaths when four people died that day and five police officers who served at the Capitol on Jan. 6 died in the days after. So by all verifiable accounts, Rivera told the truth.
Fisher doesn’t seem to have any concern about Del Rio’s political commentary that kickstarted the whole ordeal, for some reason.
Meanwhile, Fisher’s Panthers are currently 1-8 with one week remaining in the USFL’s 2022 season.
