Jack Del Rio deletes Twitter account after fine

Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio deleted his Twitter account Saturday, a day after he was fined $100,000 for comments referring to the Jan. 6 insurrection as a “dust-up.” 

Del Rio had begun to delete a few tweets before wiping the account completely. While he initially kept up the tweet that compared the U.S. Capitol attack to the George Floyd protests — the tweet that he attempted to defend when meeting with reporters Wednesday — he deleted a reply in which he used a Pinocchio emoji to a fan who gave Del Rio grief. The coordinator also appeared to delete another comment in which he told a fan to “Bite Deez,” prior to deleting his account.

On Friday, coach Ron Rivera announced that he had fined Del Rio for comments “extremely hurtful to our great community in the DMV,” adding that Del Rio’s comments did not reflect the views of the organization. Del Rio’s fine will be donated to the U.S. Capitol Police Memorial Fund. 

“He does have the right to voice his opinion as a citizen of the United States and it most certainly is his constitutional right to do so,” Rivera said. “However, words have consequences and his words hurt a lot of people in our community.”

Del Rio apologized for the comments Wednesday, hours after he referred to Jan. 6 as a “dust-up” when defending an earlier tweet of his. Last Monday, Del Rio 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 ???” in a reply to a tweet about the upcoming congressional hearings about the Capitol attack.” Del Rio told reporters he felt there were “two standards” being applied, saying he was just asking a “simple question.”