On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said he is “sympathetic” to the Tampa Bay Rays players who didn’t want to wear rainbows on their uniforms and “the idea of stop making me do things your way.” And that while he thinks Washington Commanders Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio’s comments on January 6 were wrong, “he has a right to be wrong” and shouldn’t be fined.
Maher stated, “There was a football coach, his name is Jack Del Rio…and he called the January 6 riot a ‘dust-up[.]’ Now, this is a very common view that he has. I would like to — if I could talk to Mr. Del Rio, I think I could probably and hopefully convince him a little bit that it was more than a dust-up. He also compares it a lot to the 2020 protests that were going on after the George Floyd murder. Okay, I think I could also convince him there are really important differences between those two things and actually the attack on the Capitol was worse. Nevertheless, he has a right to be wrong. In America, you have the right to be wrong. They fined him. The team fined him $100,000 for this opinion. Fining people for an opinion, I am not down with that.”
He added that the Commanders were showing they are “against free speech” by fining Del Rio.
After turning to the Rays, Maher said the players “gave a religious reason, which is sincere. You know me with religion, I mean, I think it’s super stupid. … I’m not sympathetic to the religion aspect. I am sympathetic to the idea of stop making me do things your way. You know what? It reminds me of ‘Mean Girls,’ we all wear pink on Wednesday, well, I don’t.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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