Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio made waves for his controversial comments in which he referred to the January 6th Insurrection as a "dust-up."
Following a hefty $100,000 fine from head coach Ron Rivera and an apology to the whole team, some Commanders players have voiced their support -- or at least indifference -- towards the debacle.
Washington defensive tackle Jonathan Allen, when asked about the matter, voiced a relatively measured opinion. Allen, of course, is no stranger to the spotlight of controversy; the young defensive tackle was met with criticism for his own "dust-up" back in February when he called Adolf Hitler a "military genius" in a Tweet.
"Everyone makes mistakes. I'm not here to judge; I'm not here to condemn. Obviously, he said something he shouldn't have said. He owned it to the team like a man and that's all you can ask for... "I like to separate my political life and my work life. Yes, we're a family; yes we're brothers. But this is a job and you can't forget that. You can't forget that no matter your political view we get paid to do a job and we don't get paid to share our political views. I'm not saying we can't use our platform to express our political views, but I get paid to play football, dominate double teams and sack the quarterback and that's what I'm going to do."
In comparison, defensive tackle Daron Payne had a dull response when asked about whether Del Rio's comments would influence his own perspective on the team.
"No, man, I play football."
For Rivera, handling such a situation for an organization that is often in the limelight for the worst reasons is a difficult task.
Based on his players' responses to the situation, it seems like his tact should have, at the very least, assuaged some of the tension that was inevitably present in the locker room following Del Rio's comments. However, Commanders fans will have to hope that the locker room continues to stay cohesive as the NFL season quickly approaches.
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