Everyone Is Blaming Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan For RGIII's Gruesome Knee Injury
This morning, Redskins coach Mike Shanahan is taking heavy criticism for pushing his franchise quarterback — a 22-year-old star with one ACL injury in his past already — beyond the breaking point.
Here's a sampling of what NFL columnists and commentators are saying.
Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post:
If ever a veteran coach needed to accept responsibility for the reins of a player, it was Shanahan over Griffin in this game. Yet he simply passed the buck to his player. Griffin said he could play, was in pain but wasn’t injured and had earned the right to be the quarterback — all the sideline buzzwords to keep yourself in the game. And Shanahan listened and bought it. Soon, we’ll find out the price.
Griffin didn't have a coach Sunday.
He had Mike Shanahan, who looked at this mess, looked at each hapless Redskins drive, looked at every painful RG3 step, looked at every awkward, overthrown pass, and instead bought Griffin's weak arguments and then closed his eyes and lied to himself that it would all turn out OK.
Peter King of SI (who didn't put it ALL on Shanahan, to be fair):
Griffin was so obviously not himself, and so tentative moving around, and the Redskins and their medical staff should have seen this. Griffin clearly has a they'll-have-to-drag-me-off-the-field mentality and needs to be protected from himself. Shanahan should know this. I believe he should have pulled Griffin out of the game before the half, for good.
If Griffin was too competitive, too stubborn to pull himself out of the game Sunday because his effectiveness was reduced, then it was incumbent on coach Mike Shanahan to make the call. But the veteran coach couldn't do it on Sunday. He rolled with the will to win and the trust that a 22-year-old can make the best call in the heat of the moment.
Mike Freeman of CBS Sports:
ProFootballTalk:
The criticism against Shanahan was exacerbated by news yesterday morning that Dr. James Andrews never cleared RGIII to return to the game when he originally hurt his knee on December 9.
The team previously said he was okay'd to return.
After the game, Shanahan said RGIII convinced him he was okay to play, and that he was "hurting but not injured."
According to USA Today, the Redskins are fearing the worst, and an MRI this week will either confirm or alleviated those fears.
Here's video of the play, where RGIII's knee simply gave out:
Please enable Javascript to watch this video