Robert Griffin III told reporters after Monday morning’s practice that the knee brace he is wearing will be there all season.
“I don’t know if I’ll wear it forever. I know I’ll wear it the rest of the season,” RG3 said. “It just depends on how the leg feels.”
Griffin has previously played a full season of football with a similar knee brace on at Baylor.
“After the first time I had the injury, I wore [a knee brace] for a year and I thought I’d wear it the rest of my life,” he said. “The next year came around, and I took it off, and we won a Heisman and did a whole lot of other things.”
“[Initially] it’s just a nagging pain. The pain never goes away, so it’s not the worst pain you’ve ever felt at any particular moment after about two weeks, but it’s just always there,” he explained. “You have to be mentally tough enough to just overcome that and keep pushing through.
“The mental side, I think, you work on that throughout the whole rehab process. Cutting, jumping, planting on it. By the time you get out to the field, that side’s past you.
“I feel like, physically, I have no pain, I have no swelling. I thank God for that, because not a lot of guys get blessed to have that this far into their rehab and getting back on the field. And then mentally, there’s no mental obstacle for me at all.”
I have been asked several times on Facebook and twitter “why exactly is Griffin wearing a knee brace if he has been cleared to practice?” The answer is it’s highly preventive and gives Robert reinforcement on his knee while the tendons and muscles continue to get back to normal. Not to say Griffin isn’t ready, it’s a smart move on behalf of the Redskins medical and coaching staff to bring Griffin back slow and be smart in the process.
Robert looked a little uncomfortable last year with the knee brace on, but as he said in his press conference on Monday, that had more to do with not being used to having the knee brace on for months while trying to recover. He has grown used to wearing the knee brace now and it’s giving him zero problems.
