espn.com: Yes, he can ... (excellent article on RG3)

[Califan007]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/page...iii-voice-generation-espn-magazine?src=mobile


Some highlights:

In the fall of 2009, just when Briles and the fans in Baylor Stadium were starting to dream big, Griffin went down. Anterior cruciate ligament. The whole Baylor community took it hard (overnight, the stadium was half-empty, Griffin says), but Griffin took it to heart. He personalized the injury, made it his fault. "I saw how many people I let down," he says. "My head coach cried. My offensive coordinator cried. My offensive line coach cried."

Then he saw, beneath their sorrow, a genuine concern for him. "Not even worried about the season -- worried about me as a person & I saw that in their eyes."

It broke his spirit. It lifted his heart. Until that moment, Griffin says, he'd never embraced football. He'd always played full speed, all out, but he'd never cherished the game, not until it was taken from him. "I didn't love football before I tore my ACL. When I came back, I loved it."

There are many connections between that Baylor injury and the one Griffin suffered last season against Seattle. Same knee, of course. Same threat to his career. But there's also this: When Griffin woke in the operating room, he once again saw his entire football family with tears in their eyes. The family members were different -- Dan Snyder, Redskins owner; Bruce Allen, general manager; Tony Wyllie, head of public relations -- but Griffin's feeling of gratitude was the same. "It's tough for professional athletes to trust anyone in this business," he says. "When the owner of the team, the general manager of the team, the PR director of the team, they're all there, that's how you know: I can trust these guys."

Of course, Griffin's real family was there too. Father, mother and his fiancée, Rebecca Liddicoat, holding his hand, kissing him. They'd all watched his surgery from the viewing room, and they looked traumatized. Only one person, however, had watched every minute; only one person was that strong. Griffin's mother. When Griffin saw her crying, that's when he fell apart. "What no one knew was, at the time of my first surgery I told my parents, I promised them: I'll never do this to you again. I'll never have a serious injury again and have you guys go through this emotional turmoil."

Thus, the first words he spoke as the anesthesia wore off: "I'm sorry."

As for blame, guilt, accountability, all the things DC fans want to know about -- Didn't they realize what was at stake? -- the buck stops with Griffin, he says Trumanesquely. Whether it's the quality of the sod at FedEx Field (which, that fateful day, had the consistency and texture of greased hay marinated in runny manure) or the decision-making of his coach, Mike Shanahan, Griffin isn't throwing anyone or anything under any manner of moving vehicle. "One thing [Shanahan] stressed to me," Griffin says, "is we have to be a close group. We can't let people outside penetrate that and create a rift. Have we talked about the season, the sequence of events that happened over the last four games and the playoffs? Yes. We have. That's something you handle internally."

But Kirk Cousins, the Redskins' talented backup, who relieved Griffin in the Baltimore game and again in the Seattle game, recalls eavesdropping on an intense sideline conference between Griffin and Shanahan: "Robert, you're clearly limping, you're not at full strength, do you think you need to come out? And I'm not quoting anybody, I'm just paraphrasing. And Robert's attitude was: I'm okay. I understand there's a limp, but I'm going to be okay. I brought us this far, I want to finish this thing."

Cousins adds: "I think it was tough for Coach Shanahan to tell him no. And it was tough for Robert to back down. Both of them were in a tough spot, each guy's word against the other."

 

[Om]

Reading now....had to pop in to mention I just lost a bit of my warm fuzzies about the piece when I hit this:

"... rocking the red and yellow..."

Seriously?

sigh

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Better than "the maroon and black."
Posted via BGO Mobile Device

 

[Om]

Not in my book.

At least maroon and black would look good.

And NOT be Kansas City.

Anyway...

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Fair enough...but as long as Griffin plays like last season, he can call it pink and daisy for all I care!
Posted via BGO Mobile Device

 

[Goaldeje]

Just because I need to smile:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCSFXFHTj7I[/media]

 

[Goaldeje]

Just to add to that poker is most definitely NOT his game... but then again, neither is a spelling contest.

 

[CounterTrey]

Reading now....had to pop in to mention I just lost a bit of my warm fuzzies about the piece when I hit this:

"... rocking the red and yellow..."

Seriously?

sigh

smh...



I agree it's just as bad as Maroon and Black, maybe worse.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

At least "red and yellow" is closer to the actual color scheme than "maroon and black." Black isn't even close!

 

[tshile]

I could have done without the continual comparisons to Obama. I prefer not to mix politics with sports.

 

[CounterTrey]

Hah! Om looks like someone else noticed and gave the author a virtual slap...it's been changed to Burgandy and gold (and they still spelled Burgundy wrong hehe).

And I spit my drink when I read this comment...

"You know, RG3's knee would probably heal if ESPN would stop dry humping his leg all the time. "

 

[Burgundy Burner]

I hate it when "Burgundy" is spelled wrong.

 

[Taylor 36]

Did I miss something? I don't recall RG3 calling the colors Burgundy and Yellow, that was the author I thought (can't go back now since it has been corrected).

 

[Om]

Robert is way too sharp to say anything like that, Taylor. Hell, as I recall he was already fully conversant in Redskins lore by the time he showed up for rookie camp.

No, the author referred to the Redskins colors as "red and yellow" in his piece. Along with several other facepalm moments in my view. Overall I gave the piece a Meh minus.

 

[fansince62]

Robert is way too sharp to say anything like that, Taylor. Hell, as I recall he was already fully conversant in Redskins lore by the time he showed up for rookie camp.

No, the author referred to the Redskins colors as "red and yellow" in his piece. Along with several other facepalm moments in my view. Overall I gave the piece a Meh minus.

I'm with you on this.

Robert is one of the most talented, intelligent, self-composed athletes to hit professional sports in a long time. he's his own man - no one's yes man. so he is going attract unwarranted criticism - as we saw several mos ago with the idiot ESPN reporter.