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Showing results for tags 'Robert Griffin III'.
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I don't care what people say about Robert Griffin III being a "bust" - he was a *great* athlete and college football player, whose career was basically ended because he wasn't properly trained to play in the NFL, and because he was left in a game when he was so badly injured that he could barely walk. When I first saw Griffin's highlight video coming out of Baylor, I could not believe the things I was seeing: plays such as Griffin running to his left, then stopping on a dime and throwing a 50-yard laser cross-field to a receiver sprinting down the *right* sideline for a touchdown. During his rookie season with the Redskins, even his detractors grudgingly came around to admitting that this kid was phenomenal, and two-thirds of the way through the season, there wasn't merely unanimous accord about him being the Rookie of the Year, but also serious talk about him being the NFL MVP. Yet, there was that college-style game he was playing - the equivalent of storming the enemy without wearing a bullet-proof vest, and the Redskins were doing nothing to help him transition from a college-style game to become more of an NFL pocket passer, because he was taking them to the playoffs and they were thinking short-term. Griffin's career-ending injury occurred when he was left in the game with an injury so obviously severe that everyone could see it - the announcers were incredulous - and the next play would essentially be his final one in the NFL. A superstar done in by being rushed along and not coached into becoming an NFL player who could survive in the long-term. Maybe so, but he'll always have *my* respect, and I hope he has a lifetime of happiness with his millions of dollars, even though he'll never have the Hall of Fame career which was his for the taking. And it's absolutely *not* his fault - he was a *kid* who only knew one speed: overdrive, and it was the coaches' job to reign him in, to develop him, and to protect him. Look at what the Nationals did in 2012 when they had the best record in the National League, and Stephen Strasburg hit his (arbitrary) "maximum pitch count" before the season was over - why didn't they bench Strasburg *before* he hit that pitch count so that they could use him in the playoffs? I have never heard a satisfactory explanation to this confounding decision when Strasburg was showing *no* signs of physical problems. Whatever their rationale, they chose not to save Strasburg even when it was obvious they'd make the playoffs without him, and then they lost to the Cardinals in the National League Division Series, 3 games to 2. Would Strasburg have made a difference in a five-game series? What the hell do you think? If the Redskins had given Griffin one-tenth of the protection that the Nationals gave Strasburg, we might have a superstar quarterback leading us to the playoffs right now, year after year; instead, we have someone who was made into a scapegoat for the Redskins' stupidity, and is wrongly and unfairly called "one of the biggest busts in NFL draft history." RG3: World-class athlete, Hall of Fame potential, the definition of class when he was forced to go an entire season without taking a single snap, and no more of a bust than Bo Jackson.