And so it begins. Only three weeks after Robert Griffin III suffered a very serious injury, people are already starting with the ridiculous, “will he or won’t he start,” talk. I guess I should be grateful that they’re not talking about week 5, but at least being (only) slightly more reasonable by referring to a possible week 8, October 27th matchup against the Cowboys. In case you missed it, here was NFL.com reporter’s Ian Rapoport’s Tweet that got this spicy stew all stirred up:
As for #Redskins QB Robert Griffin III, the plan is for him to be back in 3 weeks — before the bye. That’s Oct. 27 vs. the #Cowboys.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 5, 2014
That was followed by this piece by Kevin Patra on NFL.com, which is basically just a flushed out version of the same Tweet without any new details.
As often happens with NFL reporting, it’s tough to figure out exactly where this information is coming from. This is something that drives me bonkers. Is any of this coming from someone inside the Washington club, RG3 or otherwise? Is this a case where RG3 (or whoever) simply says that they’re hoping to return early? Is this one player’s opinion or a club-wide perception, approved by the medical staff? Of course, there are no details that really help us figure any of that out.
The only concrete development that we might link to this is the recent sighting of RG3 stretching on the field with the team during practice. But even that news, reported by Mike Jones here, is careful to point out that this is not a new milestone and that it basically signifies nothing. The always-enjoyable/irritating Richard Simmons himself could stretch with the best of them, but it doesn’t mean he’s taking any snaps under center.
If you ask me (and you did, right?) this has all the makings of a ridiculous hyped up media frenzy such as we saw in 2013 with Aaron Rodgers and his magical collarbone. Remember that one? I’ve written about it enough to make most people sick. Anyone with a brain should’ve known that Rodgers would be out for roughly two months. But when Rodgers said in an interview that he hoped to start in a Thanksgiving game against Detroit, people lost their fucking minds. That started a feeding frenzy of speculative reports that would last all the way to week 17 when he eventually made his return.
If you get tired of my pessimism, I can point to at least one other source that thinks this is ridiculous already. The Washington Post’s Mike Jones published this just about an hour ago, and it’s right in line with what I was thinking. Mike Jones has been on this case from the start, and he was part of that in-depth piece on the injury that I absolutely loved. In that recent piece, Jones even insists on putting the word, “plan,” into quotes, as in, “the ‘plan’ is for Griffin to return to play against the Cowboys.” I love that, as it correctly indicates the dubiousness of that term. Whose plan is it? RG3’s? Washington’s? Nobody can really tell based on the NFL.com story.
Let’s not overlook the obvious fact here that this is a struggling Washington team that is often downright hard to watch or root for. Shitty owner, shitty name, shitty defense. In that case, why not throw some hype and optimism towards a meeting with a classic rival… on a primetime Monday Night Football game no less! Given all that, yeah, just ignore this noise.
Crud, I should also mention that I have a very vested interest in being pessimistic, as I already stuck my neck out on Griffin’s timeline here, here, and here.
