Robert Griffin III had one of the most impressive starts to an NFL career in 2012, leading Washington to the Wild Card round and winning Offensive Rookie of the Year.
However, things quickly unraveled for the Heisman Trophy winner, and by 2017, Griffin claimed he was blackballed by coaches and even considered switching to track and field.
Robert Griffin III Reveals Who Blackballed Him in 2017
Griffin was selected No. 2 overall by Washington in the 2012 NFL Draft, but then-head coach Mike Shanahan reportedly didn’t want to draft him.
Shanahan even asked owner Dan Snyder to trade the quarterback after his rookie season, even as Griffin showed plenty of promise. He threw for 3,200 yards with 20 touchdowns and five interceptions while completing a respectable 65.6% of his passes. Griffin also put his diverse skill set on full display, rushing for 815 yards and seven touchdowns while averaging a robust 6.8 yards per carry.
Snyder refused, but Washington fell to 3-13 in Griffin’s second season, leading to Shanahan’s firing. Nevertheless, Griffin turned in another strong statistical season, throwing for 3,203 yards with a 16:12 TD:INT and adding 489 rushing yards at 5.7 yards per attempt across 13 games.
The team then hired Jay Gruden in 2014, but Griffin struggled with injuries and started just seven games. He also experienced a statistical downturn, throwing for just four touchdowns against six interceptions, leading to a then career-worst 2.8% INT rate.
In 2015, Griffin suffered a concussion in Week 2 against the Detroit Lions and left the game. Even after being medically cleared, he lost his starting job to Kirk Cousins and did not play another snap before being released in 2016.
Griffin signed with the Cleveland Browns but started just five games before being cut in March 2017. He then claimed he was blackballed from the NFL.
Recalling the situation on the latest episode of “Something’s Burning,” Griffin suggested his strained relationship with Shanahan was the reason.
“For me, in 2017, I was out of the NFL for a year, and a lot of people don’t know that. But in 2016, I played for the Browns, got hurt, got cut in March 2017, missed the whole football season. I didn’t play football for an entire year. I went to workouts, didn’t get signed.
“I’m 27 years old, Heisman Trophy winner, second pick in the draft. I’m like, someone’s going to bring me back, right? Then I found out that I was blackballed from the NFL by certain coaches, so that kind of played into it.”
When asked why he was blackballed, Griffin replied, “The whole thing with Mike Shanahan and Washington — he’s a very powerful coach.”
With no opportunities in the NFL, Griffin considered returning to track and field. In high school, he was rated the No. 1 400-meter intermediate hurdler in the country before transitioning to football.
“I ran on the track because I actually started doing the decathlon. I was training and gearing up to go back to track and field. I was 27, and that would have been a great move. I would have loved that. I felt like I needed to still compete. I was so young, and I wasn’t getting the opportunity, so I’m like, I’m just going to go back to track and field.”
However, Griffin’s NFL career wasn’t over just yet. He signed with the Baltimore Ravens in 2018 as a backup for Lamar Jackson and played three games that season. He appeared in seven games in 2019 and four games in 2020 before being waived by Baltimore in 2021. Griffin then retired and became an NFL analyst for ESPN.
Griffin Cites What Held Him Back, Pushes Jayden Daniels Forward
Griffin pointed to the complications he faced in his career post-Washington, but that does not mean his time in the nation’s capital was any easier. Griffin recounted internal conflicts between Washington’s front office and its then-head coach, Shanahan.
“I had an owner and a head coach that hated each other. The coach didn’t wanna draft me. Then they draft me, now you’ve got the owner, the head coach, and the GM all beefing about it, but we win the division the first year, so no one knows” Griffin said. “But then the next year, we go 4-12, and it’s because we didn’t have that camaraderie, we didn’t have that united vision.”
However, the former Baylor legend clarified that he believes the Commanders are in a new era where they have an excellent chance of capitalizing on their strong performance in 2024 — 12-5 and an NFC Championship Game appearance.
“Jayden [Daniels] comes in, he’s got a new owner, a new GM, a new head coach, and a new offensive coordinator, and all of them are aligned because when one of them sinks, they all sink,” Griffin said.
To Griffin, this organizational synchronicity is what will propel the Commanders and the reigning Rookie of the Year forward to the future: “So I know you guys or anyone that’s ever put together a team or had kids, anyone watching who’s had kids. How you set them up is gonna help them be most successful.”
You don’t go from what he did in his rookie year to not knowing how to play football anymore. A lot goes into a QB’s success, and if those things are no longer in place, or the coach doesn’t want that player, he can’t be successful. Injuries played a large part, but you don’t lose skills in a single off-season. Shanahan is notorious for treating QB’s he doesn’t like poorly and almost engineering their failure. Look at how he treated Donovan McNabb. Blackballed might be a strong word though – he had a particular skillset, and an offense has to be geared to it. Coaches are often married to systems and won’t/can’t adjust them for a QB.
RG Knee
The dude just won’t admit he couldn’t live up to expectations that the N F.L required once teams had enough film to study . Couldn’t read defenses and wasn’t accurate
BS, he wasn’t blackballed. The fact is that his skills quickly went downhill and he wasn’t a good QB anymore.
FDT