The Patriot Post® · NFL: No Free Speech Allowed

The National Football League has made headlines once again for engaging in fundamentally anti-American behavior. Specifically, it’s the Washington Commanders — formerly known as the Washington Redskins until team ownership finally caved to the pressure campaign raised by guilty white leftists to change the name due to the false pretense that it was racially offensive.

Washington’s NFL franchise is once again in the spotlight, this time for dreaded Thoughtcrime, after Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio expressed his opinion regarding the House Democrats’ clearly politically motivated January 6 Committee.

Following a practice the day before the Democrats’ televised dog-and-pony show began, Del Rio contrasted race riots around the country with the Capitol riot: “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. I just think it’s kind of two standards.”

Early in the week, Del Rio had posted a question on his Twitter page: “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 ???”

One would have thought that Del Rio just advocated for the killing of a liberal Supreme Court Justice the way the Leftmedia responded. Not only had Del Rio failed to refer to the Capitol riot as an “insurrection,” as Democrats have erroneously insisted, but he dared to highlight a blatant double standard: He compared it to the numerous Black Lives Matter riots that produced billions of dollars in property damage, lost business, and dozens of lost lives.

Like raging two-year-olds, wokescolds demanded Del Rio’s head, and Washington’s head coach Ron Rivera was apparently only too willing to play along. Del Rio offered an apology and was fined $100,000 for daring to offer a rather honest and insightful opinion on the political scene going on in the very city in which he works.

Even after Del Rio’s apology and fine, Rivera made sure he was working to continue to push the Democrats’ propaganda regarding J6 and BLM. He released a statement that read in part: “I met with Coach Del Rio to express how disappointed I am in his comments on Wednesday. His comments do not reflect the organization’s views and are extremely hurtful to our great community here in the DMV. … He does have the right to voice his opinion as a citizen of the United States. … However, words have consequences and his words hurt a lot of people in our community.”

In other words, Del Rio failed to kneel before the Left’s version of reality, and so he was punished. Nothing Del Rio said was racist or derogatory, and yet his supposed “freedom” to express his opinion is declared as so “hurtful” that it requires him being fined in an effort to silence him. That’s not how free speech works. This is how an oppressive, authoritarian system works. Del Rio happens to be white and politically on the “wrong side” of the aisle, therefore his speech must be silenced.