Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > dc.driving > #5

A comprehensive history of how Washington ruined Robert Griffin III's body, mind and spirit

Cross-posted to 5 groups.

Show all headers | View raw

http://www.sbnation.com/2015/9/1/9232961/robert-griffin-iii-
washington-jay-gruden-dan-snyder-mike-shanahan-injury-concussion

Robert Griffin III will not be Washington's starting QB in 2015 
after head coach Jay Gruden announced Monday that Kirk Cousins 
will lead the team.

It's not a horrible decision. Cousins has looked better than 
Griffin in preseason play, Cousins is better suited for Gruden's 
drop-back offense than Griffin, and Griffin is currently shelved 
with a concussion and will be out for Week 1.

However, it's the denouement of a series of failures that have 
seen Griffin swerve from a thrilling rookie with a bright future 
to an unwanted backup. Some of these slip-ups were unfortunate 
accidents nobody could have prevented; some were obvious 
mismanagements by people who should have known better; some of 
them were legitimately disgusting failures to look out for the 
health of another human being, star QB or otherwise.

Here is our attempt at putting together a comprehensive timeline 
of Griffin's calamitous fall from can't-miss superstar to 
persona non grata:

The prospect

It is tough to imagine a more perfect QB prospect than Robert 
Griffin III coming out of Baylor.

He was a natural leader, taking a Bears team that was expected 
to be bad and guiding them to a 10-3 record. He was a good 
decision-maker, completing 72.3 percent of his passes and 
throwing 37 TDs against only six picks. He had a powerful arm. 
He was speedy, a Big 12 track champion in the 400-meter hurdles. 
He was smart, both on the field and off: He graduated from 
Baylor in three years with a 3.67 GPA and began work on a 
master's. He won pretty much every award available to him, 
including the Heisman Trophy. And he was likable, a goof with a 
gaptooth smile.

Andrew Luck was going to be the No. 1 choice in the draft, but 
somebody would get lucky enough to get a franchise QB without 
even being bad enough to get the top pick.

The big trade

Washington agreed to leverage its future on Griffin in 2012. On 
March 6, Washington made one of the largest pre-draft trades in 
NFL history, giving up three first-round picks and a second-
round pick to move up from the No. 6 pick to the No. 2 pick.

It was a very bold move, but QB was a real issue for Washington: 
In Mike Shanahan's two years on the job, they tried out a washed-
up Donovan McNabb, Rex Grossman, and John Beck. They said it was 
worth the risk:

"Obviously, we had been struggling at the position and we felt 
extremely confident (with Griffin)," (Washington GM Bruce) Allen 
told ESPN Cleveland. "Once, we knew the person we were getting 
and that there was no doubt about his athletic talent. At the 
end of the day, it was about a grade on a player. We had as 
beautiful a grade as you can have on that athlete. We knew the 
talent and we were really comfortable with the person, a 10."

Of course, there was one concern: Griffin tore his ACL as a 
sophomore. Obviously he recovered just fine, but this should've 
told any NFL team considering him to handle future knee injuries 
with caution. (Foreshadowing.)

A brilliant rookie year

Griffin showed up to Washington and was the real deal from Day 
1. For a few months, the trade looked 100 percent worth it.

Sept. 9, 2012

In Griffin's first game, a win over the Saints, he threw for 320 
yards and two touchdowns and earned NFC Offensive Player of the 
Week honors -- the first time a rookie QB won that award for his 
first game. Griffin would win NFL Rookie of the Week twice in 
the first four weeks of the season, as well as NFL Rookie of the 
Month.

Nov. 14, 2012

Griffin's teammates named him a captain.

Nov. 20, 2012

Griffin became the youngest player in NFL history to post a 
perfect 158.3 passer rating, throwing for 200 yards with four 
touchdowns against the Eagles.

Dec. 30, 2012

Griffin closed the year with a win over the Cowboys, the team's 
seventh straight, sending the team to the playoffs for the first 
time since 2007. He set the rookie record for best QB rating and 
best TD-to-interception ratio. After the season, he was named 
NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.

The injury, and making it worse

Late in his rookie season, Griffin suffered an injury, because 
he is a professional football player and professional football 
players get injuries. But systematic dysfunction led to 
Griffin's ill-fated attempts to continue playing afterwards, 
which led to a much worse injury.

Griffin's injury marked a pivotal shift in his career arc. He's 
never since replicated the success of his rookie season, and the 
dialogue surrounding him has changed drastically. Griffin's 
injury sparked a clash of philosophies about how to best protect 
him that led to one coach getting fired and a new coach not 
quite suited for Griffin getting hired.

Dec. 9, 2012

Week 14, Griffin hurt his right knee on a hit by Haloti Ngata:

With the team down eight points and driving, he tried to keep 
playing after missing only one play. In a post-game presser, 
Mike Shanahan said Griffin was given the A-OK by team doctor 
James Andrews:

"(I said) 'Hey, Dr. Andrews, can Robert go back in?'

'Yeah, he can go back in.'

'Robert, go back in.'

"That was it," Shanahan said.

In January, Andrews revealed that conversation never happened:

"(Griffin) didn't even let us look at him," Andrews said. "He 
came off the field, walked through the sidelines, circled back 
through the players and took off back to the field. It wasn't 
our opinion. We didn't even get to touch him or talk to him. 
Scared the hell out of me."

Griffin re-entered and played four downs, clearly hobbled. He 
eventually hopped off the field, giving way for Kirk Cousins, 
who threw for a touchdown and got a two-point conversion. 
Washington wins in OT.

The injury was revealed to be a mild LCL sprain. Griffin missed 
Week 15, but is back for Week 16.

Jan. 6, 2013

Griffin was cleared to play in Washington's playoff game against 
Seattle, albeit wearing a knee brace that causes him to limp 
slightly. The knee bothered him from the get-go, and he heads 
back to the locker room after a few big hits from the Seahawks.

Griffin vehemently argued that he should be allowed to return to 
the game, and Shanahan let him. It was evident that this was a 
very bad idea from the get-go: Griffin was clearly limping and 
his mobility was restricted, as he got hit on plays where he 
normally would've escaped.

Then, on a botched snap in the fourth quarter, his knee buckled:

Who to blame for Griffin's injury became a topic for debate. 
Many asked why Shanahan didn't pull his QB, Others criticized 
Griffin for not knowing how to play hurt. And others pointed out 
that Washington's field was in terrible condition. Either way, 
it was clear he should never have been allowed to come back.

2013 offseason

Griffin's injury was revealed to be a partially torn LCL -- the 
same ligament that was strained earlier -- and ACL. Later, it is 
revealed to actually be a completely torn LCL and ACL, requiring 
total reconstruction. But when Griffin had surgery, and 
Washington revealed he also had a torn meniscus hanging around 
in there, too.

Publicly, comment on Griffin's recovery was very optimistic: In 
February, the team said there was a legitimate chance he will be 
able to start Week 1. In June, Griffin said he'd be ready to go 
on the first day of training camp.

However, as the season got closer, the optimism faded.

On the one hand, Griffin wanted to play and the team wouldn't 
let him. He told media that he was upset Mike Shanahan was 
holding him out of 11-on-11 drills until several weeks into 
training camp:

"I can't B.S. that answer. No. I don't like it, and there's some 
part of it that I do understand," Griffin said. "I don't 
understand all of it, but [Shanahan] gave me his word. We talked 
about it. I know the plan. I'm not telling the whole plan 
because he doesn't want the whole plan known. I understand that 
as well. But I don't understand the whole plan at all. I can't 
lie about that."

On the other, there were still reports that as cautious as 
Washington was being, they were still rushing him back too fast. 
Philadelphia reporter Howard Eskin said Dr. Andrews recommended 
Griffin not be allowed to play until Week 6 -- and that 
Washington was openly ignoring that advice, continuing towards 
the Week 1 return date. The team denied the report.

The Snyder-Shanahan feud

After a happy, successful first season, Griffin's numbers took a 
huge drop in the second year as Washington stumbled to a 3-13 
start. Some of this can probably be chalked up to his injury, 
some of it to normal regression after spectacular play.

But some of it can also probably be credited to Griffin being 
caught in the crossfire between an owner overstepping his 
boundaries and a coach irritated his toes were being stepped on.

Normally "the owner is friends with the star player" would be a 
harmless -- or even good! -- fact. With Washington, it led to a 
power struggle, dirty laundry being aired publicly, and arguably 
hampered the career of that star QB.

After a superstar rookie season, Griffin was the clear 
centerpiece of the Washington franchise. However, his gruesome 
injury threw his future -- and therefore, the team's -- into 
doubt. Owner Dan Snyder apparently felt that the best way to 
ensure Griffin's health and protect his franchise's future was 
to change his playing style, getting him to play less zone-read 
style running plays and spending more time in the pocket as a 
passer.

Shanahan felt Snyder's opinions and his relationship with 
Griffin undermined his ability to coach Griffin and get him to 
play his most effective style of play, a rift that ended up 
being irreconcilable. It's unclear when his dissatisfaction 
started -- an ESPN report said that Snyder's buddy-buddy 
relationship with his QB had him willing to quit toward the end 
of Griffin's rookie year before a change of heart -- but for our 
purposes, we'll pick up right after that:

Feb. 5, 2013:

Griffin talked to Shanahan about his role -- but Shanahan felt 
the words were Snyder's:

"It was actually two days after the Super Bowl," Shanahan said. 
"He had asked to have a meeting and I really don't blame that on 
Robert. I mean, Robert to me, was a young player, he had a heck 
of a year, he had a serious injury at that time, and it's me 
that changed the perception of a person, because I know Dan 
[Snyder] felt very strongly about Robert being a drop-back 
quarterback and did not want Robert to take shots ...

"Yeah, he did ask for a meeting. He did talk about, number one, 
he wanted change. He mentioned the Baltimore game and the 
Atlanta game, you know, his injuries. He talked about protection 
shortening his career ... He actually [mentioned] what plays 
were acceptable and unacceptable, and when he started talking 
about what plays were acceptable and unacceptable, and that he 
wasn't a rookie anymore and wanted to voice his opinion, the 
term unacceptable is used by Dan, the owner, quite often.

Shanahan confronted Snyder about it:

‘Hey, Dan, for a quarterback to come to me, a veteran coach, and 
share these things, number one, he can't be the sharpest guy to 
do something like that, or he's got to feel very good about the 
owner backing him up. And since you have been telling me from 
Day One that he's a drop-back quarterback and we should do more 
drop-back, and you guys have spent the last couple months 
together, I would think, or at least the last month, that this 
is an extension of you.' He said it wasn't.

Meanwhile, Shanahan insisted that the best career track for 
Griffin was for the young QB to get more comfortable throwing 
the ball away and sliding to avoid hits.

Aug. 13, 2013:

Shanahan and Griffin both spoke to the media about their 
relationship, claiming they were on the same page.

But then the season started.

Nov. 18, 2013

After a loss to the Eagles to fall to 3-7, Griffin criticized 
Shanahan's play-calling:

"They did a good job of scheming us up. They kind of knew what 
was coming before it was coming and that was disheartening."

And Shanahan criticized Griffin's play-making:

On what RGIII was thinking on his backpedaling dagger 
interception by Brandon Boykin from the Philly 18: "I really 
don't know. I have to take a look at the film and kind of go 
through his thought process. It's really hard to say. I didn't 
talk to him after the game."

Dec. 8, 2013

Washington lost 45-10 to fall to 3-10, but more importantly, the 
Shanahan-Snyder spat became officially public. A report came out 
that Shanahan felt Snyder's relationship toward Griffin was "a 
complete farce." Another report said the relationship between 
the two has fallen past the point of repair. The general 
consensus was that this would be Shanahan's last year in 
Washington.

Dec. 11, 2013

Shanahan decided to bench Griffin for the rest of the year, 
citing Griffin's long-term health:

"We have to do ... what is in the best interests of Robert," 
Shanahan said. "What is the best thing going forward for him -- 
to have those next three games, the experience of going through 
those reps, or having him healthy in the offseason? ... I said, 
‘Hey, Dan, we're not gonna go this direction unless you fully 
support it.' Same thing with Bruce: ‘You've got to tell me that 
you're behind this and you're in favor of it.' But I don't want 
anybody coming back in a game or two and saying, 'Hey, you know, 
we should have talked about this.'"

However, there were purportedly more cynical reasons. One was 
that RGIII just wasn't playing well. Another was that Shanahan 
benched Snyder's preferred player so that he could get fired and 
collect his salary for the last year of his contract. Shanahan 
denied this theory.

Dec. 30, 2013

Washington fires Mike Shanahan.

Jan. 9, 2014

Washington hires Jay Gruden.

Gruden and the bench

Gruden came into Washington known for his West Coast passing 
philosophy, a system that asks QBs to drop back, stay stationary 
and sling passes rather than making plays with their feet. The 
idea was that Gruden was supposed to get RGIII playing the style 
of play Snyder wanted him to play all along.

The opposite has happened: Gruden has come to the conclusion 
that Griffin is a round QB peg in a square West Coast hole, and 
that he'd rather play a QB that can be successful in his system 
that switch his entire coaching philosophy to better suit RGIII.

Gruden seemed pained to play Griffin and he's spent much of his 
two years searching for reasons to justify benching him. With 
the 2015 season approaching, he found a new one.

Preseason

Gruden went into his first year on the job with the assumption 
that Griffin would start at QB, and spoke optimistically to the 
press about his growing relationship with the young QB. He even 
bought a house near him!

Gruden said it would be foolish to make him a pocket passer. He 
said he was blown away by Griffin's smarts and talents, and that 
the most important thing for a player as instinctual and gifted 
as Griffin was for him to play:

"He's gotta play," Gruden said. "He's not gonna become the 
greatest quarterback in Year 3; he's gonna have his growing 
pains. It's a matter of learning the position, and learning 
situations, protections, when to throw it away, when not to 
throw it away, when maybe not to take that hit. All that. All 
the situations, the touch throws, the anticipation throws, the 
deep throws. Every game is different, and is gonna become a 
different challenge for him. ... He's just gotta play."

Sept. 14, 2014

Griffin didn't play much. In Week 2 of the season, Griffin 
suffered a dislocated ankle while rolling out on a bootleg:

After Griffin left the game, backup Kirk Cousins did a fine job: 
He torched the Jaguars for 250 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-
10 win.

Sept. 15, 2014

A report came out that if all things were equal, Gruden would 
play Cousins over Griffin, and that the coach secretly 
considered Griffin's injury a blessing in disguise:

Gruden was having a hard time getting Griffin to grasp the 
principles of the drop-back passing system he was teaching. If 
Cousins and Griffin had come to camp as undrafted rookies, 
Cousins may have opened the season as the starter.

Again, according to the person with knowledge of Gruden's 
thinking, he actually believed Cousins could succeed in the 
system better than Griffin but also acutely understood it was 
going to be near impossible to make a change.

Oct. 19, 2014

Cousins was benched in favor of Colt McCoy. Cousins had started 
the last four games with Griffin injured and responded by 
throwing eight picks in four losses. (Note to self: Never make 
personnel changes based on performance against the Jaguars.)  
The team was losing to the Titans before Gruden made the change, 
and McCoy went 11 for 12 passing en route to a Washington win.

Nov. 2, 2014

Griffin was back and was immediately given the starting job in 
his Week 9 return from the ankle injury. Reports indicated that 
the decision was made not by Gruden, but by Snyder and Allen. 
Gruden might have preferred the team continue to go with McCoy, 
who went 25 for 30 in a surprise win over the Cowboys in his 
only week as the team's starter.

Nov. 16, 2014

Griffin threw two picks and Washington lost to hit 3-7. The 
crowd chanted WE WANT COLT. Gruden said Griffin is "not even 
close to good enough for what we expect from the quarterback 
position."

Nov. 26, 2014

After three losses in three games, Gruden benched Griffin for 
McCoy, the first time in Griffin's young career that he was 
benched for reasons other than injury. Gruden reportedly was 
only able to make the decision after spending hours convincing 
Snyder it was the right call.

Some reported that Gruden has no intentions of starting Griffin 
again this season, while an anonymous Washington official leaked 
that there's a chance he will.

Dec. 4, 2014

A report surfaced that Gruden is "done" with Griffin, and would 
favor "a clean break" between the QB and the team in the 
offseason:

Gruden has seen enough to realize Griffin at best is a long-term 
project as a pocket passer. Griffin was too deliberate reading 
defenses and displayed poor footwork and an alarming lack of 
pocket presence for a signal-caller in his third NFL season.

Dec. 6, 2014

Other reports said that it could be the other way around: The 
team could look to move on from Gruden and stick with Griffin.

Dec. 7, 2014

In a bit of cold-blooded mockery, the Rams used the six players 
they acquired for RGIII as the six captains for the coin toss to 
show Washington what they were missing out on. The Rams shut 
Washington out 24-0, and a few weeks after chanting for Colt 
McCoy, the crowd chants for RGIII. Make up your mind, fans!

Dec. 14, 2014

In the Week 14 game against the Giants, McCoy reaggravated a 
neck injury and Griffin was forced to come in. All that scandal 
over whether to play Griffin or McCoy ended up being 
meaningless, as Griffin closes out the season with McCoy 
sidelined. (Cousins, perfectly healthy, remains benched.)

Aug. 6, 2015

For all the talk of imminent departures, Griffin and Gruden were 
both back. They were both uneasily promising they'll move 
forward together:

"You hope it's growing," Griffin said of his relationship with 
Gruden. "I don't know that. It's not something we talk about. 
People have talked about it and there is a lot out there and so 
many perceptions. I don't really know him and he doesn't really 
know me. But how could that be any other way in only one year?"

Aug. 20, 2015

In Washington's second preseason game, Griffin took an absolute 
beating. The offensive line, without left tackle Trent Williams, 
allows Griffin to get hit six times on eight drop-backs. Griffin 
comes out for a fourth drive in the meaningless preseason game, 
and suffers a concussion:

Aug. 27, 2015

Washington announced that Griffin had been cleared to play in 
the team's upcoming preseason game by an independent 
neurologist. (Nobody says anything about why any team would play 
a QB in a preseason game a week after a concussion, but that's 
besides the point.)

Aug. 28, 2015

Washington announced they were wrong. Griffin had never been 
cleared -- a neurologist had merely predicted that he would be 
cleared. Griffin was ruled out for another week or two.

Aug. 31, 2015

Gruden announced that Kirk Cousins would be the team's starter-- 
not just for Week 1, when Griffin would hypothetically still be 
recovering from his concussion, but for the foreseeable future:

"He's the best quarterback on our roster at this time," Gruden 
said. "He's earned the right to be our starter for 2015."

The way Gruden quickly swerved from sending Griffin out days 
after a concussion to anointing Cousins for the foreseeable 
future is somewhere between "suspicious" and "disconcerting."

* * *

It's not clear what the future holds for Griffin. It certainly 
seems as if Washington's coaching staff has given up on him and 
is looking for ways to get rid of him. There's also a chance the 
people in charge in Washington still hold out hope for the guy 
they gave up so much of their future for.

It's easy to read all this stuff and be disappointed in Griffin. 
There would be no drama if his performance from his rookie year 
had held up instead of the dropoff into lackluster play, there 
would just be smiles and happiness. And there's no doubt that 
something about Griffin's personality and desire to star has 
contributed to two consecutive coaches souring on their desire 
to work with him.

Robert Griffin III is 25 years old. He was younger than that in 
many of the situations described above, and had massive 
expectations placed on him. At first, he handled those 
expectations and not only survived, but flourished.

Griffin depended on people much older than him with much more 
experience to help him handle those massive expectations. 
Instead, they complicated things.

They allowed Griffin to get injured. They put Griffin in 
positions to fail after his injury.

They made Griffin a proxy for their personal squabbles.

They repeatedly benched and unbenched Griffin, sometimes telling 
him he was a franchise QB and other times telling him he wasn't 
as good as Colt freakin' McCoy.

They asked Griffin to do new things he wasn't used to and new 
things that didn't fit his skill set, then had a short leash 
when he failed at them.

They took a strategy that worked with great success and threw it 
in the trash, then expected the same results.

Time and time again, the people who were put in charge of 
helping Griffin have actually hurt him.

The good news is that Griffin is still just 25 , and is only a 
few years removed from massive success. That means there is a 
possibility that he once again has massive success in his NFL 
career. But there is no doubt that his career has been stunted 
by Washington's higher-ups -- and no reason to expect things 
will ever go any differently if he remains there.

Cry me a fucking river for this over-rated piece of shit.

 

Back to dc.driving | Previous | Next | Find similar

Thread

A comprehensive history of how Washington ruined Robert Griffin III's body, mind and spirit "The Lies Begin" <racist-liberats@sbnation.com> - 2015-09-10 13:01 +0200

csiph-web