RG3's sad story

What a painful afternoon for RG3 (literal pain) and everyone watching (figurative pain) him hobble through a playoff loss to Seattle.

Far from an NFL junkie, but I tuned in yesterday because of one of the more compelling matchups you're going to see -- two rookie quarterbacks who go completely against the grain of your prototypical pro quarterbacks. Exciting stuff.

It never materialized because it was obvious from the start that Griffin, regardless of what he said during the week about his health improving, was tremendously limited as a runner. And it was the running, of course, that made Griffin vs. Russell Wilson must-see TV going in.

Mike Shanahan is getting skewered today for leaving Griffin in the game after he clearly re-injured his knee in the first quarter while falling to the sideline. It's being cast as a coach being so maniacally driven to prove he can win a Super Bowl without John Elway that he compromised the long-term health of a truly special player.

Here's Gary Myers of the New York Daily News:

What he needed to do was protect the Redskins’ future by protecting Griffin from himself. Players always want to play.

Shanahan was bordering on cruelty by not trusting his eyes. It was painful to watch Griffin, a special player with a magnetic personality, try to win a playoff game on one leg against the punishing Seattle defense. RG3’s game is based on his explosiveness. Not only hasn’t he been the same since injuring his right knee on Dec. 9 against the Ravens, but Shanahan failed to come to the conclusion that Griffin had nothing after reinjuring the knee Sunday. He let the rookie’s strong will and competitiveness get in the way of rational thinking.

“He’s very strong, very adamant, which doesn’t mean it’s not right not taking him out,” Shanahan said in the closest he came to second-guessing himself.

There's an interesting subplot to all this that features star surgeon James Andrews refuting Shanahan's claim that Andrews cleared Griffin to play last month.

Andrews was quoted in USA Today over the weekend as saying he had never examined Griffin after he was hurt against the Ravens and it “scared the hell out of me” when he went back in the game.

Whoa. Wow.

It's at this point you wonder if NFL players suffer from the lack of advocacy you see in college with team doctors and trainers who, in most cases it seems, are chiefly concerned with the player's health and have authority (theoretical, at least) to stand up to a coach. Can't tell you how many times I've seen a Clemson player come up hobbled on the field, attempt to stroll to the sideline as if nothing is wrong, only to be confronted by head trainer Danny Poole as he sternly looks him in the eye and gives a thorough once-over before deciding whether the player is fit to return.

In the Washington Post, Thomas Boswell said this situation shows us the best and worst of the NFL.

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.

And then:

If Griffin is basically okay, all of this probably will blow over, everyone will congratulate RGIII on his play-with-pain courage and Shanahan, in the future, might say he needs to factor RGIII’s extreme “stubbornness and competitiveness” into his decisions on whether to let him stay in games.

If Griffin has a major injury, even if he is entirely able to recover from, then the sight of Griffin staggering through this game like a defenseless one-legged man, and the playoff-blood-pact between coach and quarterback may go down as one of the sport’s most remarkably stupid macho decisions.

So, the stakes aren’t too high. Sports is a strange world where everybody agrees to rewrite history after the MRI comes back.

Mike Wise, also of the Washington Post, says it's too convenient to blast Shanahan because no one would be blasting him had RG3 led his team to a victory.

You were either going to the mountaintop with him or down in flames. There was no in between. When you’re dealing with the guts and heart of men like Shanahan and Griffin, that’s how it’s always going to be.

Also, ask yourself this — and be honest: Would you have felt any differently about Shanahan’s decision if Washington wins this game, that somehow, some way, a hobbled Griffin led them back from the brink to their first playoff victory in seven years?

He would have been feted like Willis Reed was in 1973, like Kirk Gibson double-clutching his fist as he limped around the bases after his miraculous walk-off homer.

The point is, many of us feel differently — offended in some corners, disgusted in others — because of the outcome. I don’t remember anyone questioning the coaching or medical staffs of the Knicks, Dodgers and Bulls for putting their players at risk of further injury.

It's a solid point that has to be considered, but at some point in the game it should've become obvious to the Redskins' brain trust that Griffin was almost totally ineffective. Griffin at 50 percent is probably better than the backup, but Griffin wasn't close to 50 percent and that's the point you need to go with the next guy simply because the next guy gives you the best option to win the game.

Regardless of points of view on this, it's a sad story. There's a fine line between heroism and career-wrecking injury, and we might've seen it in the fourth quarter when Griffin's knee bent awkwardly and he fell to the turf, powerless to undertake the most rudimentary and reflexive task of scooping up a fumble.

LW