5

WHAT THE REDSKINS NEEDED WAS QUARTERBACKING

The Washington Redskins entered Week 17 of the 2011 season at a disappointing 5-11, playing in one of those mostly forgotten end-of-season matchups against another NFC East franchise that has perennially disappointed, the Philadelphia Eagles. On a rare sunny winter afternoon in Philadelphia, the Redskins started Rex Grossman, who on the season had thrown for 15 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. Grossman’s pedestrian numbers proved to be the writing on the wall—namely, that the Redskins would be going in another direction at quarterback the following season, which had become a familiar refrain for Washington fans.

Grossman occasionally shared the job in 2011 with John Beck, for whom there was a momentary surge of excitement in Washington. But Beck was 0-3 in his starts, with 2 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. In one of the more decisive draft-day moves in recent memory, Beck was unceremoniously released the moment the Redskins took their second quarterback in four rounds.

Since Doug Williams led the Redskins to Super Bowl glory in 1988, and since the able but unspectacular Mark Rypien game-managed the Redskins to their own Super Bowl title a few years later in 1992, the list of Redskins quarterbacks has been long and unsatisfying.

The list includes three failed first-round draft choices. Heath Shuler—an undersized but dynamic running quarterback from Tennessee—only started 13 games for Washington and ended his career with more than twice as many interceptions (33) than touchdowns (15). In 2002, über-involved owner Daniel Snyder forced then–head coach Steve Spurrier into selecting Tulane’s Patrick Ramsey, and then forced Spurrier to play him, resulting in a short but awkward stay in Washington for both player and coach. Ramsey never developed in four seasons of intermittent starts and was soon shown the door. Finally, in 2005, the Redskins selected Auburn’s Jason Campbell near the end of the first round. Campbell started for two full seasons and put up some solid numbers, but the wins never followed. He posted a 4-12 record in his final season as a starter and lacked the “It” factor needed to helm a franchise and engineer victories. He has settled as a high-end backup in Chicago after another failed starting stint in Oakland.

In between there were stopgaps like Gus Frerotte, John Friesz, and Tony Banks. There were short stints by quarterbacks who had success in other places, like Rich Gannon, who won a Super Bowl in Oakland, and Trent Green, who provided quality starts for St. Louis and Kansas City. There were over-the-hill veterans with Super Bowl rings like Jeff Hostetler and over-the-hill veterans like Jeff George who had never met expectations elsewhere. And then there was the bizarre Shane Matthews and Danny Wuerffel era, in which Spurrier thought he could recreate his high-octane Florida Gators offenses on the pro level with the same personnel. He was wrong.

It could be argued that by the end of 2011, the Redskins were nearing two decades of wandering in the proverbial quarterbacking desert. They needed not only an able athlete but also a face for the franchise. Owner Daniel Snyder’s freewheeling spending in free agency had turned up nothing but big-name busts like Sean Gilbert and, most recently, Albert Haynesworth, who repeatedly failed Shanahan’s preseason conditioning tests and was summarily dumped.

The previous two decades stand in sharp contrast to a history filled largely with successful and charismatic quarterbacks. With his iconic single-bar face mask, Notre Dame product Joe Theismann enjoyed an almost decade-long run as the starter from the mid-’70s through the mid-’80s. The Theismann-era ’Skins were a collection of personalities—names like John Riggins, The Smurfs (the club’s diminutive receivers), The Hogs (the club’s massive and popular linemen), and the silver-tongued Theismann himself, who was equal parts Hollywood and old-school (see: single-bar face mask and lots of busted-out teeth). At any rate, his era really represented the last extended excitement generated by the position.

Before Theismann, the position was held down by popular veteran Billy Kilmer and also Sonny Jurgensen, who is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was a five-time Pro Bowl selection, and about whom legendary coach Vince Lombardi once said, “He is the best quarterback I’ve ever seen.”¹

Even Norm Snead, who preceded the quarterbacks above, represented Washington in the Pro Bowl in 1962 and 1963. Week 17 of 2011 provides context for just how badly the Redskins needed a leader, but also the nucleus of quality players that would key the transition and play a role in the ascension of RG3.

Across the field on that December afternoon in 2011 stood Mike Vick, who is perhaps one of Robert Griffin’s stylistic ancestors and who was (unbeknownst to him at the time) nearing the end of his confusing run as Philadelphia’s starter. He returned from a suspension and jail time on a dogfighting conviction in Week 3 of 2009, acting as a decoy wide receiver and a backup to incumbent starting QB Kevin Kolb; but it was Vick’s stellar 2010 season that earned him favor with Philly fans and cemented him as the starter. In 2010, Vick threw for 3,018 yards with 21 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions—a level of ball security that was previously unheard of for Vick. There was talk of him really developing as a passer, and he didn’t throw an interception until Week 7 of the season.

Vick and head coach Andy Reid seemed to be inextricably linked, as both carried the burdens of fame and pressure. Reid had five NFC Championship appearances on his résumé, but only one Super Bowl appearance and a loss to New England. Another disappointing season in Philly meant that Reid’s goodwill—seemingly endless a few years previous—now had a shelf life. The Eagles needed to win—and win soon—and would need to wait another year to see if they could do so with Vick at quarterback.

Vick, though always heavily hyped, had numbers that were eerily similar to Grossman’s in 2011, completing under 60 percent of his throws and throwing for only 15 scores (with 13 picks) on the season. Even Vick’s definitive dark visor, while once looking so flashy, just seemed a little outdated.

The game started sluggishly, with both teams going three-and-out on their first two drives, and Vick going 1-5 in the first quarter. Meanwhile, in Carolina, rookie quarterback Cam Newton—about whom there were major red flags coming out of Auburn—was putting the finishing touches on a Herculean rookie season that would perhaps influence Washington’s direction in the upcoming draft. The first overall pick in the 2011 draft, Newton threw for over 4,000 yards as a rookie, adding 21 touchdowns through the air to go with an astonishing 706 yards and 14 touchdowns on the ground. More importantly, Newton was doing what football pundits had said couldn’t be done—running a version of a college offense (spread option) at the pro level.

The Redskins, meanwhile, lacked playmakers on both sides of the football. Their bright spots included undersized veteran linebacker London Fletcher, who had 163 tackles coming into the game and was Washington’s only representative in the Pro Bowl. The defense featured promising rookie Ryan Kerrigan—an outside linebacker out of Purdue—and superstar outside linebacker Brian Orakpo, who failed to make the Pro Bowl. The offense, by contrast, was stunningly devoid of playmakers. Washington’s best wide receiver was the diminutive and aging Santana Moss, while the running game featured a Roy Helu/Tim Hightower/Evan Royster backfield-by-committee that wasn’t exactly striking fear into offensive coordinators. Overall, Shanahan’s backs had trouble staying healthy and hadn’t seemed to settle into his legendary zone-run schemes; but Royster provided the bright spot of the first half for Washington, ripping off an impressive 28-yard run in which he made several defenders miss.

Sadly, though, Washington’s defining moment of the half came with a minute remaining—when unheralded Philadelphia receiver Chad Hall caught a Vick pass in the flat, then broke halfhearted tackles by linebacker Perry Riley and high-priced cornerback DeAngelo Hall on his way to the end zone. To end the half, Grossman would hit Jabar Gaffney deep over the middle, but the field goal team would fail to get onto the field with enough time to kick. Grossman finished the half 12-24, but only 1-7 on third down. The Redskins were failing to make plays when plays needed to be made.

The second half brought more disappointment as the offense sputtered. The defense gave up a backside screen to Eagles tight end Brent Celek for a score and a 9-yard run by backup running back Dion Lewis to put the game out of reach at 34-10. The building blocks were few and far between for Washington. Could Evan Royster develop into a full-time back? Was tight end Fred Davis explosive enough to give Washington high-end production like Gronkowski and Gonzalez of the Patriots? Did the team have a true number one at wide receiver, with the journeyman Gaffney and the undersized Moss? How good was Brian Orakpo, really?

In 2011, Mike Shanahan’s Super Bowl success in Denver seemed a long way off, and he would have to answer these pressing questions, and others, in order to keep his job. Before 2012, Shanahan would enact a housecleaning, parting ways with veterans like Gaffney, Chris Cooley, Mike Sellers, Donte Stallworth, and Tim Hightower. He seemed committed to recreating the team in his own image, with his own players; and that rebirth would need to start at the quarterback position.

Dressed in black spandex shorts and an orange Under Armour tank top emblazoned with his NFL Scouting Combine player number, Robert Griffin settled into his sprinter’s stance at the starting line of the 40-yard dash. “You can tell he’s a track guy,” said former New York Giants defensive back and NFL Network track analyst Mike Mayock on the network telecast.

The NFL Scouting Combine happens each year in the month of February as collegiate prospects arrive in Indianapolis—by invitation only—to be evaluated by every team in the NFL. It has become a media hallmark of the NFL’s brilliant offseason calendar—a calendar that is calibrated to keep fan interest peaking throughout the year. At the combine, each prospect is evaluated in the 40-yard dash, vertical jump, standing broad jump, pro shuttle, three-cone agility drill, bench press (optional for quarterbacks), an intelligence test, and a full array of passing drills.

Griffin’s 6-foot-2-inch (a little short?) and 223-pound body revealed little to no body fat and no wasted motion as he exploded out of his stance. Lucas Oil Stadium, per usual for the NFL Combine, felt empty and quiet. The stands were sprinkled with scouts in officially licensed team gear, and the field was sprinkled with other nervous-looking players wearing Under Armour sweat suits and waiting for the four seconds that would justify their existence and validate their hard work. Players literally run, jump, and throw for dollars, as their performance here has a direct correlation to their draft status in April. The league knows that this is the best kind of reality television, and although the event itself is closed to anyone except league personnel, media coverage of it in recent years has become manic.

His footfalls were audible on the FieldTurf, and as Griffin exploded through the finish line, Mayock simply said, “Wow.” Unofficially he was timed at 4.38 seconds—territory that had previously been reserved for speedsters like Deion Sanders, DeAngelo Hall, and Darrell Green. Incidentally, all are cornerbacks and current or former Redskins. Officially, Griffin clocked in at 4.41, but his speed and athleticism were only a portion of a dazzling combine and Pro Day performance.

According to Terry Shea’s quarterbacking bible, Eyes Up, quarterbacks are tested on the following:

1. Grip. The quarterback grips a football for a ground-level camera shot intended to show the size of a quarterback’s hands.

2. Drops and throwing mechanics. Quarterbacks perform back-out and three-, five-, and seven-step crossover drops, delivering balls to stationary receivers.

3. Rollout. Quarterbacks roll to their right and left, pulling up at the numbers and delivering a ball 20 yards downfield to a stationary receiver.

4. Hook up with receivers. Finally, quarterbacks throw quick slants, outs, digs (a deeper “in” route), curls, gos, post-corners, and deep outs to live receivers.²

In addition to the on-field activity, players are available for fifteen-minute interviews with teams. According to Shea, many teams reach an early judgment on players based on their fifteen-minute interviews. In 1998, the last season in which there was a tightly contested duel for the first-round spot between quarterbacks Ryan Leaf and Peyton Manning, Leaf apparently missed his appointment with the Indianapolis Colts, who ended up selecting Manning. Manning, by contrast, arrived at his appointment with a legal pad and “interviewed” the Colts—asking extensive and detailed questions about offensive philosophy and personnel.³ The Colts knew they had their man.

“How you present yourself [posture, eye contact, self-confidence] is as important as the responses to the questions themselves,” Shea writes. “Demonstrate confidence, but a touch of humility goes a long way.”⁴

Writes Shea, questions can range from football “Xs and Os” to leadership scenarios. He helps prepare quarterback prospects by having them answer questions like, “For your first play as an NFL rookie, what play do you want sent in?” and “How will you handle an out-of-control veteran in your offensive huddle?” Players are sometimes even asked to list every play they can remember from their college offense. When he was with the Kansas City Chiefs, Shea was asked to evaluate quarterbacks according to a seven-part rubric:

1. Is he coachable and is he available?

2. Confidence: Does he believe in himself?

3. Competitor/Loves the Challenge: Is he at his best when he needs to be?

4. Poise: How does he react in stressful situations?

5. Skill: Is he able to execute his job, not just be a part of it?

6. Condition: Is he physically, mentally, and emotionally tough? His performance should never vary regardless of the situation.

7. Passion and Energy: Does he enjoy practicing and playing the game of football?⁵

As the pre-draft process unfolded, it was clear that Griffin was off the charts in each category, wowing media and scouts with his interpersonal skills as well as his athleticism. His draft-season adversary was equally sensational Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, son of a former NFL quarterback (Oliver Luck) and a more traditionally prototypical NFL quarterback. At 6 feet 4 inches and 234 pounds, Luck stood tall in the pocket and ran a traditional pro-style offense at Stanford, where he threw for over 9,000 yards with 82 touchdown passes and only 22 interceptions. The words smart, poised, and polished continued to surface in connection with Luck, but some questioned his upside. To be fair, these were the same questions posited about Peyton Manning in 1998, and his upside seems to have worked out fine for all involved. To his poise and polish, Luck added a sneaky athleticism. He ran 4.7 in the 40 at the combine (same as Cam Newton and Tim Tebow) and ran for 957 yards and 7 touchdowns at Stanford—not exactly the numbers of an unathletic statue in the pocket.

The occasion of Robert Griffin’s selection by the Washington Redskins was probably the worst-kept secret in sports. The Redskins pulled off one of the biggest trades in draft history to move up to the number two spot, swapping first-round positions with the Rams and giving them first-round picks in 2013 and 2014 and a second-round pick in the 2012 draft. As for Griffin, he said all the right things pre-draft. “I’m going to assimilate to the culture of the team that picks me, on the field and in the locker room,” he told Sports Illustrated. “I’m not coming into the NFL with, let’s say, five plays from Baylor that I love and saying to the offensive coordinator, ‘Hey, we have to run these.’ That’s not my job. I just want to fit in.”⁶

Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said that drafting RG3 was “nearly a sure thing” before the draft.⁷ This was reinforced by the fact that Griffin spurned the Colts’ request for a pre-draft workout, feeling certain that they were going to draft Andrew Luck and perhaps communicating his own desire to play in the nation’s capital.

Washington Post sportswriter Mark Maske reported on the selection: “‘We tried to keep it secret as long as we could,’ Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan said at Redskins Park soon after the pick was made, describing team officials as ‘elated’ with the selection. ‘He wants to be the guy,’ Shanahan added. ‘He’s going to do everything he possibly can to be successful. You don’t have to be around him very long to figure that out.’”⁸

Griffin’s father gave an interview in the lead-up to the NFL draft and spoke of the importance of family. “I grew up with mom and dad. I had an expectation. . . . Robert and my daughter—the same thing. We have that one, inner-group connection . . . the fact that we all, you know, believe in family. And that’s been very important to us.

“I tell Robert that, number one, you know, remember faith first. . . . When everybody else fails, God is still there for you,” he said. When asked about the moment he felt Robert may have had limitless athletic potential, he talked about Robert’s youth basketball league, where he played against kids who were years older and inches taller. “Robert was nine. . . . Coach put Robert in the game and Robert went to work. He made a move like Dr. J.”⁹

He went on to talk about how in tenth grade his son said he wanted to be a lawyer, and how they almost sent Robert to the University of Houston because of the opportunities it would have provided for his law career. All of that seems quaint in light of the grandeur and spectacle of the NFL draft, which has become must-see television for NFL fans. First-round coverage of the 2012 draft would draw over 25 million viewers on ESPN and the NFL Network combined.

Former NFL coach Brian Billick, in his book More Than a Game, described his experience with the draft this way: “As I entered the grand ballroom of New York’s Radio City Music Hall for the 2008 NFL draft I felt as if I were walking into Herod’s Temple. The place reeked of money.”¹⁰

Griffin was photographed and videotaped for ESPN’s intro/outro sets in which the players are shown lifting weights, throwing a ball, and mugging for the camera. It’s all intended to give the event a larger-than-life feel. It works. Also larger-than-life were Griffin’s endorsement deals before the draft, as he inked agreements with Adidas, Castrol, Subway, and EA Sports before he was even affiliated with an NFL club.

Griffin wore burgundy-and-gold striped Adidas socks and a light blue suit to the draft at Radio City Music Hall in New York. As NFL commissioner Roger Goodell strode to the podium, there was very little suspense. “With the second overall pick in the NFL draft, the Washington Redskins select Robert Griffin III.”

A few miles away, in Washington DC, draft parties exploded with excitement and hope. Grown men wearing Redskins jerseys were beside themselves with platitudes. “RG3, we love you already! Bring one home for us!” “My favorite thing about RG3 is his socks!” exclaimed another fan. “There’s nothing he can’t do!” said another.¹¹ It was a moment full of hope, but also full of pressure and expectation, because a fan’s love is the very definition of conditional love. At another draft party, Redskins fans joyfully smashed a Jerry Jones (Cowboys owner) piñata. Griffin highlight footage spun on repeat on ESPN and the NFL Network. We saw countless versions of his late touchdown pass heroics against Oklahoma—the play where he scrambled left, got smacked in the face, and still threw up a touchdown pass.

“How can anyone not let that go to their head?” asked my wife, watching it unfold. “From now on, everyone he meets will love him for this, and not for who he really is.” Leave it to a woman, my wife, to boil this whole thing down to its essence. I wanted to tell her that it’s all just a part of the hype, that most men would kill to be loved “for this.” But she’s right. The money, the fame, the shallow “love” of a fan all presented a potential assault on young Griffin’s character.

“I’m not going to any award shows or doing any commercials during the season,” Griffin said during an introductory press conference. “All that’s done. I did my work in the offseason, whether it was with marketing or just football work, making sure I stayed in shape and stayed on top of the playbook. I made sure I did all of that, while at the same time making sure I handled my business.”¹²

“I’m real excited,” he said in a conference call with reporters. “A team finally fell in love with me. They want me for who I am, and I can’t wait to go play for them.”¹³