Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III has heard the same basic questions ever since injuring his knee last year against Seattle. The questions center around whether or not there are issues between him and coach Mike Shanahan. Griffin has repeatedly claimed that there are no problems between the two.
Several times this off-season Griffin has made mention of everyone making mistakes in the process of the injured knee, including himself. But Griffin has also emphasized that those situations were in the past and he was moving forward as was everybody else. The main reason why anyone is still talking about this is the major media outlets give it attention and make their living off of “speculation.” So when Griffin starting to express his frustration with being held back in camp to only 7-on-7’s the media jumped on it.
Today, RGIII was asked if he was going to push Shanahan to play in the preseason, he responded by saying “You know me too well. I’m going to, definitely. I want to play, let’s get that straight. I want to play in the preseason. Coach is just saying that if things go great these next couple of days and next week, then maybe, but it’s a hard no right now. It’s my job to make that a soft no and possibly a yes. But I’m definitely going to push for it. I feel ready to go. The walk-through was easy, really easy, and I feel like I’ll be ready to go. We’ll see what happens. I’ll definitely push for that third game, but who knows what happens.”
When Griffin was asked if he understood his current rehab process, his response gave those same media hounds what they wanted again, which is “speculation”.
Griffin said, “I can’t BS that answer. No, I don’t like it, but there is some part of it that I do understand. I don’t understand all of it. But at the end of the day, he [Shanahan] gave me his word. We talked privately. I know the plan. I am not telling the whole plan because he doesn’t want the whole plan known and I understand that as well. I don’t understand the whole plan at all. I can’t lie about that, but when you give your word to somebody, that’s all you have, so I’m just banking that they will stay true to their word and I’m staying true to mine. I’m doing everything they have asked me to without any gripes other than with you guys and that’s just the way you have to do it.”
What that says to me is that Robert Griffin III wants to play and be the on-the-field leader of the Washington Redskins, but at the same time he realizes Shanahan makes all the decisions on who will play and when. It’s in Griffin’s nature to want to play no matter what, and Shanahan is protecting him from himself essentially. It’s a smart move on Shanahan’s behalf, he took a lot of criticism last year after the injury and is being cautious in the return of his franchise quarterback.
Griffin tweeted this not long after his press conference:
There is no friction. There is an understanding between coach and player. That is all. Don’t have to like everything
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) August 12, 2013
