Commanders president issues statement after backlash from fans, media

Washington Commanders president Jason Wright released a statement following backlash from a spokesperson’s response earlier in the day.

The Washington Commanders were once again in the news for all the wrong reasons. Earlier on Wednesday, the office of Washington D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced that there will be a press conference on Thursday that is in regards to the Commanders. Shortly thereafter, a team spokesperson responded, where they decided to bring up the shooting of running back Brian Robinson as a way to deflect from the investigation and press conference by the Attorney General.

This led to a huge negative response from fans and the media. Not just that, but Robinson’s agent, Ryan Williams, was critical of the statement.

Later on Thursday night, Commanders team president released a statement of his own following the backlash. Wright said that the statement earlier “expressed our internal counsel’s going frustration with the Attorney General’s office,” while saying that “the lawyer’s legitimate frustrations with the AG should have been separate and apart from referencing the terrible crime that affected our player.”

You can read Wright’s full statement below, courtesy of NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.

Commanders president releases statement after backlash from spokesperson response to Thursday’s Attorney General press conference

Wright also brings up that they have spoken with Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee, expressing how much they support the work of the department, in addition to elected officials and public safety leaders “working to reduce gun violence and crime across the region.”

The spokesperson brought up Robinson being shot twice in the leg in an attempted robbery back in August in their statement to criticize Racine. Specifically, they said Racine “appears more interested in making splashy headlines, based on offbeat legal theories, rather than doing the hard work of making the streets safe for our citizens, including bringing to justice the people who shot one of our players.”

Robinson’s agent responded to the statement in a tweet, saying that “although I know that there are some great humans in that building, whoever is hiding behind this statement is not one of them.”

Just last week, an ESPN report revealed that the Eastern District of Virginia opened up an investigation into the Commanders in regards to allegations of financial improprieties.

That report dropped shortly after the Commanders revealed that the team hired Bank of America Securities to explore a sale of the team.

It is unknown what the exact announcement Racine will make in his press conference on Thursday.