It’s time to drop the race card on the table when it comes to the constant drama surrounding Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, and moreover it’s time to deal that card from two different decks.
Now that RG3 is back in the Redskin lineup, he’s again facing the latest round of all-out character attacks. Some media reports say those are from within the locker room, and others dispute that, but there’s no question that the Redskins quarterback is under fire for a lot more than just his play. He’s been called a diva, a prima donna, and worse. And I have a hard time separating race from this constant barrage.
But unlike a lot of circumstances, the racial issue comes from both sides in this drama. I’m going to stress in advance that these deal with attacks on RG3’s character, not his play on the field, which is fair game. Here’s a summation of the landscape…
*RG3 is viewed by some in the African-American community as “not black enough.” One need only recall an infamous ESPN commentary in 2012, when African-American “analyst” Rob Parker called Griffin a “cornball brother”, for marrying a white woman and for unconfirmed rumors of voting Republican. Parker wondered if RG3 was “down with the cause.” Parker was fired, but it makes one wonder how extensively his opinions are shared, particularly by RG3’s African-American teammates. The silence of white liberals was a reminder of how much they rely on African-Americans being emotionally bullied into supporting their causes and candidates.
*On the flip side, let’s consider this. Robert Griffin III is the son of military parents and from a strong family background. He’s never been in a whiff of trouble. He helped turn a struggling college program (Baylor) into a burgeoning powerhouse and…well, there are unconfirmed rumors that he votes Republican. Are you going to tell me that if he were a clean-cut white guy instead of an African-American with braids, that white conservatives wouldn’t be all over him? Fox News might give him his own show. But instead, there’s no support. As one, who’s mostly identified and voted with conservatives since turning 18 in 1988, this is one more cause of my increasing estrangement from the modern Right.
When an NFL quarterback’s team is winning games, none of this matters. But the Washington Redskins are not winning games—as a lifelong fan of the team, I have all the emotional battle scars of a 6-19 record over the last season and a half. And when things go wrong, you need a natural base of support to fall back on. Robert Griffin III does not have one—at least not among organized media and social activists.
I contend that this young man is being whipsawed by both sides of the racial divide in the United States, and it’s the real reason for both the sustained character assault he’s undergone, and the lack of any real support coming to his defense.
What other reason could there be? Let’s run through the litany of alternate explanations and I’ll explain why I’m not persuaded…
*The Redskins have lost 19 of their last 25 games, most of which have been with RG3 at quarterback. Yes, and I don’t consider criticisms about his game to be about race. I don’t necessarily agree with them—the ‘Skins play little defense and less special teams. But I get that it comes with the territory in being an NFL quarterback. But Robert Griffin III has been attacked with a ferocity that goes well beyond on-field performance. He’s had his character emasculated. And that doesn’t go with the territory.
*He clashed with his first head coach, Mike Shanahan. Yes he did. As mentioned, Griffin had no track record of getting in trouble with authority and came from a background that would presumably place great value on respect for leadership. Shanahan’s past track record included being unable to get along with John Elway when he was in Denver, to the point that Elway refused to return to the organization until Shanahan left. However things went down between Shanahan and RG3, their respective backgrounds suggest it’s the quarterback, not the coach, who deserves the benefit of the doubt.
*RG3 does a lot of commercials. He indisputably does. Everything from Adidas to Subway to being on with his parents in support of the military. But it’s not as though he’s kissing his bicep like Colin Kapernick of the 49ers. These ads RG3 does are all benign and non-controversial. The most audacious one was “All In For Week One” in the summer of 2013. So, his most bombastic ad was a vow to recover from an ACL tear and play the first game of the season? It might not be medically prudent, but there’s no way it explains the vitriol that poured out.
*His teammates don’t like him. We have to begin by first pointing out that we really don’t know that. And even if we do, the same questions need to be asked—why? If it’s for any of the reasons above, then the same answers apply. I also need to know exactly who doesn’t like him. Let’s keep in mind, this isn’t exactly the New England Patriots locker room that RG3 walked into. The Redskin locker room is filled with players whom I wouldn’t miss if they were cut tomorrow. Their on-field performance has been terrible, and there’s only a handful I would consider credible on any subject of leadership (Ryan Clark, Santana Moss, Trent Williams). In short, I need to know specifics—who hates RG3 and why? No one seems to want to step forward. Maybe they don’t exist.
That’s all I can think of. If there’s something I missing, I’m happy to consider it. But right now, I would sum this up with three simple propositions…
Robert Griffin III is being subjected to a character assault well beyond the scope of standard criticism for a quarterback.
Most reasons put forth don’t hold water when put up to the light of scrutiny.
The one that’s left is that he’s right in the middle of the racial divide in the United States—a place that invites vitriol.
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ANALYSIS & HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE FROM AROUND THE SPORTS WORLD
The trials of Robert Griffin III are clearly taking their toll on the psyche of the Washington Redskinsquarterback. RG3 took to Facebook to defend himself from critics. The move has had the predictable effect of stirring up his critics like sharks react to blood in the water, while also providing a rallying point for his supporters.
Below is the pertinent paragraph of what was about a three-paragraph post. The regular readers of TheSportsNotebook know that I’m a fan of the Washington Redskins, and while my loyalty to the team comes first, I’m a big fan of Robert Griffin III, regardless of where he plays. Following the post are the “Notebook Nine”, the nine pertinent thoughts I have on the RG3 Facebooksaga…
You think I want it to be national news that I visit a beach? Or shop at Walmart? Or wore red shoes instead if green yesterday? Well I don’t. I’m “striving” for greatness just like my fellow teammates do. The “attention” that comes with being a QB in the league is what you are referring to. All the press conferences and talking to the media? Mandated by the league to have a press conference every week during the season and during team activities during the off-season. Oh wait, you must be talking about the Commercials? Right? Oh ok so what was the deal with those in 2012? WE won the division. So in 2013 when WE get knocked down, and finish last it’s because of the commercials? If that is your reasoning I have nothing more to say. WE will get back up. That is what matters. I hope I answered your question well enough. And that you keep supporting the team.
*Posts like these make me like RG3 the human being even more. He comes across as someone who’s very frustrated with the character attacks he’s had to put up with, and frustrated with the season he and his team endured. I’m not saying a Facebook post is necessarily smart—but it comes across to me as very authentic, very human and very real. And speaking personally I like it.
*But…posts like this leave me very concerned about RG3 the quarterback. One thing to note is that when I call this a “Facebook post”, it was a reply to a comment and regular users of Facebook will understand the difference. It means that RG3 did not simply post something to get it off his chest and then let people read it. This means he was reading through a lot of comments on his page, got to something he didn’t like and then posted his own reply buried within the comments. That’s a lot of time worrying about what other people are saying about you.
*The consequence is that those of us who love the Redskins have to be worried that RG3 is too sensitive to occupy such a high-profile position in such an intensive media market. Washington, even after two decades of bad football, is still a town passionate about its team. The media is filled with people who imitate the same confrontational approach of their political counterparts in town. A prominent NFL quarterback ranks only behind the President of the United States in terms of media scrutiny. I’m worried RG3 might not be equipped to handle that part of the job.
*The case for going after his critics was articulated by First Take’s Stephen A. Smith this morning, who noted that RG3 had not simply his game, but his character completely emasculated over the past year, and there comes a point when anyone has to say enough is enough, and go on the offense. Stephen A disagreed with the method—he had the view of the elitist media which said RG3 should speak through them rather than directly to the fans—but his point was well-taken.
*One of my problems with the Facebook post was one that will sound strange—I agreed with all of it. Let me explain. RG3 would get himself in trouble during press conferences in the season by occasionally letting frustration slip over the lack of support. It was nothing I wasn’t thinking myself for the previous three hours, but let’s go back to our point about an NFL quarterback outranking even a U.S. Senator in terms of public prominence (stop and think about it, and you realize it’s not even close). You cannot say what you are really thinking, even if it’s true. The notion that a quarterback is really at fault every time his team loses is asinine, but when the QB keeps his postgame press conference simple and says it’s all fault it takes the heat off everyone else. My rule with RG3 is simple—if he says something I agree with, it’s probably something that shouldn’t have been said.
*I believe a good chunk of this criticism is racial. Are you going to tell me a clean-cut white kid, from a military family, who lifted a no-name college program to prominence, led a floundering NFL franchise to a division title and then worked his tail off to come back from a torn ACL, would be held out as anything less than a role model, no matter how many commercials he did? Before you heap the politically correct tag on me, I voted three times to make Pat Buchanan the president of the United States, something I trust inoculates me from the PC label.
*I think what Mike Shanahan did to this young man is deplorable. Supposedly, Shanahan—who had the contractual right to make all decisions on personnel—didn’t want RG3 in the first place, but gave in to pressure from owner Daniel Snyder. Hence, the later decision to draft Kirk Cousins. There’s nothing wrong with that—in fact you could have easily sold me on it in April 2012. There is something wrong with choosing this path, and then using your media contacts to leak information designed to destroy RG3’s character. Mike Shanahan should never again be employed by an NFL team, nor by a network.
*Moving forward, I have very few concerns about RG3’s game itself. I think a lot of this year’s problems were overblown by a sports media culture that equates the W-L record to the quarterback. The problems that did exist—he tried to force balls more than in his rookie year—I think can work themselves out by getting back into a physical comfort zone and strengthening the supporting cast.
*And now it’s time to focus on football. A new coach is in town, and while I’m less than thrilled with the hire of Jay Gruden (okay, I’m positively ready to jump off a cliff), it still means a fresh start. I’m genuinely excited about new offensive coordinator Sean McVay, who did great work with the tight ends last season. All of this provides a real opportunity for RG3 to get himself healthy, happy and productive. He’s a good kid and a tough kid—but he might want to stay off of Facebook.
The internal problems of the Washington Redskins have been simmering ever since Robert Griffin III had to leave the field for the final time in last January’s playoff game with the Seattle Seahawks, with a torn ACL. The debate over how much blame–if any–head coach Mike Shanahan deserved reverberated not just through Redskins Nation, but the entire NFL fan base, and set off a summer of speculation over whether the quarterback and the coach were on the same page–or if they even trusted each other.
Now those problems have boiled over in the aftermath of last Sunday’s 24-16 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, a defeat that dropped the Redskins to 3-7 and all but ends their playoff hopes, even in the woeful NFC East. When Washington takes the field this coming Monday Night in San Francisco, they will do so after a week of more dissension (or misunderstanding, depending on who or what you believe), media fire for Griffin, and open talk about whether Shanahan will return next year.
Or put simply, President Obama isn’t the only major figure in Washington suffering from collapsing approval ratings.
What’s going to follow here is a reflection on the major events that have taken place within this organization, written from the perspective of a Redskins fan, and some definite opinions about where the team needs to go from here.
WOOED AND WON OVER BY THE ROOKIE
During this past summer, a friend, whom is not a football fan, but knew of my passion for the Redskins, asked me what I thought of RG3. This friend does share a common interest in the ABC police drama Castle, where a novelist helps the police, and in the process often spins wild theories about who may have committed the crime. My answer to her question was in that context, when I said “Think of me like Castle. I come walking into the precinct and say something like ‘I really think we need to consider the possiblity that RG3 is superhuman and immortal.'” Sane, I am not.
As a result, I have an obvious predisposition to back the quarterback, but it needs to be emphasized that the Redskins precede RG3 in my sports fan life, not vice-versa. To paraphrase Moe Greene in The Godfather, I was rooting for the Redskins when Robert Griffin III was going out with cheerleaders. Actually long before that. I’ve been a ‘Skins fan since I was a kid in the late 1970s, and there is quite literally nothing I have done in my life longer than root for the Washington Redskins.
If push comes to shove, I’m choosing the team over the quarterback, a dividing line a lot of Green Bay Packer fans became familiar with when everything blew up with Brett Favre.
Furthermore, it would completely shock most of the people familiar with my RG3 rhetoric to know that I was a harsh critic of the trade the Redskins made to move up to the #2 pick in the 2012 NFL draft and select him. Washington swapped the sixth position overall with the St. Louis Rams, and gave up two more first-rounders and a second-rounder.
My reasons had little, if anything, to do with RG3 himself. I had become a strong Griffin backer when he was at Baylor, pushing him for the Heisman Trophy at a time when Andrew Luck and Trent Richardson were seen as the clear co-favorites. I had no problem with the notion of him being the second player picked in the draft, and was open to the view of some–including Lou Holtz and Mark May on ESPN–that RG3 should even go first.
The problem I had was that I’ve seen too many can’t-miss quarterbacks come up short. The teams in position to draft them, by definition, have huge holes throughout the roster and the Redskins were no different. What happens is that these rookie quarterbacks get thrust into situations where they have to carry a team, and even if they’re pretty good, they still fall short of expectations and aren’t worth what’s invested. That was my fear with RG3, not to mention that his style of play made it prudent to assume he would miss 3-4 games a year.
In the end, I think very few quarterbacks really carry their teams, and very few really damage their teams. The only way RG3 was going to be worth the price the ‘Skins paid was to be in the former group–even having a solid Pro Bowl career wasn’t going to be sufficient and I felt this was a burden you don’t put on any rookie. If Washington would have simply had the #2 pick in the draft, I was all for taking him. But not to trade up, and certainly not at that price.
It took me about one drive into RG3’s NFL debut in New Orleans to become a believer, as he rifled bullet passes all over the field and led a 40-32 win over the Saints. It was a win in Tampa Bay that upgraded him even further. In a tie game, leadinglate drive, RG3 had scrambled out of the pocket, picked up about 15 yards and looked ready to go out of bounds near the Tampa 40. Suddenly he cut back to the middle of the field, threw his body out there and picked up several more yards, setting up a game-winning field goal.
When the field goal to win the game went through, I was near tears. We not only had a quarterback, we had someone who would do nearly anything to win a football game. At this point, to say I was a believer understates the case. At this point, I made a smitten 16-year-old girl look rational by comparison.
You know the rest of the story. Washington wins seven in a row to win the NFC East–as expected, RG3 misses a couple games with injury and Kirk Couisins does a great job stepping in. Alfred Morris, the rookie running back starts looking the toughest Redskin runner since John Riggins. The ability Shanahan showed to develop a running game in Denver is bearing fruit in Washington and seems an ideal complement for the new weapon at quarterback.
Even the defense actually implements some tackling as a part of its gameplan and the season ends the sweetest way possible–a prime-time win over Dallas in a winner-take-all game. Regardless of what happened in the playoffs, it was set to be a successful season.
THE PLAYOFF CATASTROPHE
The loss to the Seahawks was not the catastrophe. Seattle was favored coming into the game, and only the fact Washington was the home team provided any reason to think it would end otherwise. But when RG3 led a pair of early touchdown drives for a 14-0 lead, it looked like an upset might be in the works. Instead, a play that happened early in the game–when he was tackled near the sidelines and his injured leg seemed to literally fall limp proved to be an ominous foreshadowing.
The fact the quarterback was injured was obvious to all watching the game. As it unfolded, I was clear on two things–that I would have taken him out and put Couisins in. The Redskins had the lead, and it was a good time to put the backup in, when he could still manage the game. A replay of Griffin running out of bounds, his face grimacing in obvious pain, made it clear to everyone watching that he simply couldn’t go on.
But I was also clear that while I think Shanahan erred, I didn’t think it was a terrible decision. Players carry on while injured in big situations all the time. From Willis Reed taking the floor hobbled in the 1970 NBA Finals, to Curt Schilling’s bloody sock in the 2004 American League Championship Series, we lionize the players who go out in pain. On the flip side, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler has never lived down leaving the 2010 NFC Championship Game at halftime.
Unless you wait until after the fact to second-guess (I know, the media would never do that), you can’t rip a coach for letting a player carry on, when we celebrate that very virtue. Perhaps our celebration of this is misguided, but that’s a separate topic unto itself and it’s not the world that Shanahan and RG3 live in.
Therefore, while I think Shanahan was wrong, I think it was a misdemeanor not a felony–albeit a misdemeanor that would have felony-esque consequences when RG3 finally tore his ACL on an ugly looking play, where his leg again fell limp and he literally collapsed.
MISHANDLING THE AFTERMATH
It’s the aftermath of this injury and the debate over who was at fault that Shanahan began to lose points with me. The head coach stated that Griffin hadn’t said he was hurt. First off, we’ve already established that the entire nation knew the quarterback was hurt. If the head coach didn’t know, it begs the question of what football game he was watching.
Furthermore, since when does a veteran head coach with two Super Bowl rings–more than enough cache to make a decision and live with it–shift blame to a rookie quarterback. The culture of the NFL–not just the media, but players themselves–is biased against those who ask out of a game. It’s the responsibility of the head coach to take the heat off the player and make the correct decision.
Shanahan’s lack of accountability was, at least to me, far more egregious than the decision itself. All he needed to do was say that he pushed too hard to win an NFL playoff game, took responsibility and then moved on. I don’t know if it would have ended the criticism, but it would have with me, and it surely would have at least lessened it nationally.
BATTLE LINES GET DRAWN
What the head coach’s blame-shifting did do was create a climate of mistrust that hadn’t appeared to exist prior to this point. Griffin’s father was openly critical of his son’s coach. Both of the Griffin parents serve their country in the military and it seems safe to presume they aren’t predisposed to questioning authority figures. The fact RG-2 would not only do so, but go public, tells you the mistrust had to be severe. And while I don’t support the action itself–public criticism of the head coach–I get completely why the Griffin family and camp felt the way they did.
The Shanahan-Griffin rift became a topic de jour on a sports talk–with shows like First Take missing Tim Tebow and Favre, the Redskin problems filled a needed vacuum, and those problems also got play on non-soap opera shows like Pardon The Interruption.
There was hope–as pointed out by Michael Wilbon on PTI–that this would just be akin to the early rift faced by Joe Theismann and Joe Gibbs when the latter became head coach in 1981. They worked it out and won two NFC titles and one Super Bowl. But those of us who love the Redskins had to at least think about what side we came down on if things went bad.
For me, the answer to that question was easy. Shanahan took over the Redskins prior to the 2010 season, and in the first two years there was zero sign of progress. I didn’t blame the coach as much as I took it as another indictment of Daniel Snyder’s reign–that the Redskins were simply a dysfunctional operation under which not even a Super Bowl-winning coach could succeed.
Robert Griffin III arrived and proved that, unlike his coach, he could transcend the Snyder dysfunction. There was no question where the dividing line between twenty years of failure and the 2012 NFC East title run fell, and it was with RG3. Choosing between the team and quarterback wasn’t necessary–the two were aligned.
A LOST SEASON
The Washington Redskins have spent the 2013 season looking like a poorly coached football team. The tackling is atrocious. The special teams are worse. The play-calling often gets overly vanilla, the clock management dubious at best. And the lack of accountability reverberates through the organization.
The fact Mike Shanahan continues to have his son Kyle serve as the offensive coordinator is insulting, and a big reason I’m ready to move on. In hiring his son, the head coach is all but telling the world that Kyle’s career advancement is more important than the success of the Washington Redskins. The familial loyalty is great–but just write him a letter of recommendation somewhere else, or have him by a position coach.
This kind of hire is taken by me as an indication that Mike Shananhan is no longer the driven head coach who pushed the Denver Broncos and an aging John Elway over the hump to championships in 1997and 1998. It holds the Washington Redskins hostage–you can’t make an offensive coordinator change without firing the head coach. It’s nepotism and suggests that Shanahan thinks he’s above the standards that apply to every other coach.
The aftermath of the Philadelphia game brought up some accountability issues with RG3 and I think they’re fair. The quarterback said that it seemed the Eagles knew which plays were coming. He later went on to say it was an attempt to praise the Philadelphia defense–and his own team’s veteran linebacker London Fletcher said similar words, as did the Eagle players. But it was taken as a criticism of the Redskin coaches–notably Kyle–and while it may not have been accurate, I don’t blame the media. That’s how I took the words too.
Let’s say for a moment that RG3 intended his words to be critical of the coaches. It’s nothing I haven’t shouted at my TV set countless times over ten games, but this was not the time nor the place to say it. Griffin had not played a good game, had made a bad decision on the game’s final play, and the only correct answer was to simply say “I didn’t get it done.”
Wide receiver Santana Moss said as much earlier this week on a local radio show. Moss, along with Fletcher, are two Redskin players I consider pretty much above reproach. Neither one has ever been a great player, but they’re both veterans who have always been good, at least good enough to start on playoff teams. The fact they’ve labored so hard for so many bad teams should earn them the loyalty of Redskin fans.
Furthermore, Moss was right. I didn’t blame RG3 for the loss–he didn’t play well, but he came up with some big plays, and the entire team looked in the tank for 3 1/2 quarters. But the quarterback gets the glory and the endorsements, and it’s entirely reasonable for the other players to want that same player to just bite his tounge in the press conference and say “We lost because I didn’t get the job done.”
It doesn’t mean thinking fans have to believe it’s true, but it defuses any media storyline and lets everyone focus on the job at hand. RG3 has been asked to shoulder a lot of burdens–both on the field and off, for a weak team that has a rabid fan base, and I can easily cut slack and say this indiscretion–and the correct rebuke issued by Moss– is part of the learning process. But learn from it he must.
MOVING FORWARD
Where do the Washington Redskins go from here? I’ll begin by saying I want to see some of what I saw in the fourth quarter against Philadelphia. Even though the attempt to rally from a 24-zip deficit fell short and RG3 made a bad decision, watching this team–and its quarterback–keep competing when all hope seemed lost was one of the few times this year, I felt some real pride in watching them play. I want to see that the rest of the way, regardless of what the final record looks like.
I have few, if any concerns, about RG3’s performance. If you watch this team play–and I’ve watched every snap of every game and have all the emotional scars to prove it–it’s obvious he, along with Morris, are the only bright spots this team has. If you throw out the first two games–which I think is fair, since it was obvious RG3 couldn’t yet plant his foot to throw–the only truly poor game he’s played was at Denver.
Even the problems in the Philadelphia game were due as much to the fact the Eagles collapsed the pocket immediately on most every pass, and balls had to be repeatedly thrown away because no one got open. And yet in spite of that, when the Redskins got the ball on their own 3-yard line with 3:26 to go and trailing by eight points, I had complete confidence that RG3 was at least going to get us in position to take a shot and win the game.
If I might criss-cross sports, ESPN’s Bill Simmons once wrote in his Book Of Basketball, and other times in his columns, that a mark of a great player is when the fans are completely convinced that he’s about to deliver in spite of an entire game that suggests otherwise. Elway had that ability like no other NFL quarterback I have seen. RG3’s got the same potential–two weeks in a row he’s led long, late drives aimed at tying a game. The one in Minnesota should have succeeded, if not for a dropped pass in the end zone. The one in Philly came closer than rational analysis would have suggested.
What’s more, Griffin is doing this in a year where he’s recovering from his injury, and plays on a team where the poor defense and special teams make it almost mandatory to score each time he has the ball. He’s made more mistakes than at any point of his career, but when you play in this context, you have to take too many chances.
This is also an area where Griffin’s competitiveness and stubborness work against him. He’s got to get that channeled to eat the football a little more, the fateful final play in Philadelphia being Exhibit A.
But at the end of the day, I’ll stand on this–none of the young quarterbacks with whom RG3 is bracketed–Luck, Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick–would be having any more success with this Redskin team. The other three play on real teams, that do a lot of things well, and they can pick their spots and have teammates who can pick them up if they make a mistake. Griffin lacks all of that. And note that all of this is true, even apart from the issue of recovering from injury.
Shanahan is different. It’s time to move on. I give him credit for building the running game with Morris–the Redskins lead the NFL in yards-per-rush–but every other problem with this team can be traced to bad decisions from the head coach.
We can also add in the fact he allows free safety Brandon Meriweather, the dirtiest player in the league to hurt the team weekly with helmet-to-helmet hits that come without consequence from the team. Maybe Shanahan feels Meriweather makes up for his penalties with all his missed tackles.
Washington can go one of two directions for its next head coach. The short-term answer is hire Lovie Smith. The former Chicago Bears coach can get at least clean up the defense and fundamentals and get this team competitive again. Whether you can win a Super Bowl with Lovie is a fair question, but when you’re 3-7 and have been irrelevant for the better part of two decades, let’s not get the cart before the horse.
The other possibility is go into the college ranks and hire someone familiar with the read-option. Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M is one possibility. Another one is even more intriguing–Art Briles from Baylor. The connection to RG3 is apparent, and this year’s improved Baylor defense show that Briles knows what he’s doing on that side of the ball.
Either way, the Redskins have to look to the future. Get a coach who can link up with RG3 and let them grow together. I’m perfectly comfortable with putting the fate of the franchise in this quarterback’s hands. And even if I’m not, that investment and decision has already been made. The next coaching hire needs to reflect that.
