Some outside the Commanders’ organization, including the NAACP, are calling for Jack Del Rio’s resignation or termination as the team’s defensive coordinator. Defensive tackle Jonathan Allen, though, isn’t one of those.
Allen, who has played for Del Rio the past two seasons, said he was unbothered by Del Rio’s comments comparing the 2020 social injustice protests to the insurrection at the Capitol in 2021.
“Me personally, I don’t care about his opinion,” Allen told JP Finlay of NBCSportsWashington.com on Wednesday. “As long as he shows up every day and he works hard, that’s what I want from my defensive coordinator.”
In a Wednesday news conference, Del Rio shared his belief that there are “two standards” in conversations about the protests and the insurrection. He later tweeted an apology for calling the Jan. 6 insurrection a “dustup at the Capitol.”
“In my opinion, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion,” Allen said. “Some guys decide to share it on Twitter; some guys don’t. It doesn’t make one person better than the other. At the end of the day, you can have a difference in opinion and still respect one another. I feel like that’s what our country is about. That’s what our team is about.”