NFL: The "Ouch" Heard 'Round the World

The "Ouch" Heard 'Round the World

I actually had a really good, even "macho" weekend that involved sports and cars. The LeMay Museum, a.k.a., "America's Car Museum", in Tacoma, Washington was, actually far cooler than I had imagined, but let us set that aside for now. There's nothing macho about drooling over a Dino 240, but, you know how it goes.

Rather, it was the sports that really identified the weekend, and should leave me glowing. The U.S. beat Sweden in the IIHF World Junior Championship, the NHL announced a resolution to the lockout, and our beloved Seattle Seahawks trumped Washington, D.C.'s cinderella team in their NFC wildcard playoff game.

All should be well in the world.

But, then ....

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Damn it! Robert Griffin III suffers another injury to his right knee in the fourth quarter of an NFC wildcard playoff game.
(Matt Slocum/AP)​

American football is a rough game. It stirs fans to bloodlusting frenzies. As the National Football League scrambles to figure out how to reduce injuries, powerful hits like Seattle's Kam Chancellor delivered against San Francisco's Vernon Davis two weeks before are crowd pleasers. People can debate whether or not it was a clean hit; despite the penalty flag, the rules say it was actually clean. Still, Davis left the game with a concussion resulting from his head crashing against the field.

But Sunday's game highlights another demand of that bloodlust. Early in the game, on Washington's second offensive drive, the Washington wunderkind Robert Griffin III rolled right, threw at the last second, and then fell onto his back out of bounds. It was apparent that something was wrong, as he knocked off his own helmet while laying on the ground, and then got up limping. Slow motion replays showed something like a tripping over one's own feet, or perhaps stubbing on the ground. Turf toe? Twisted ankle? Unfortunately, Griffin tweaked his already injured right knee.

A month ago, Griffin injured his right knee in a freak accident as he scrambled for yardage against the Baltimore Ravens. As he went down, Griffin's leg came up in the air, struck hard against the Baltimore tackler, and appeared to hyperextend from the impact.

That little trip on the sideline against Seattle aggravated the tender knee.

Griffin retreated off field, spoke with team doctors, and returned to the game. Clearly, the knee bothered him. He demonstrated no great mobility through the rest of the game, and appears to have lost some accuracy in his throws.

But during the fourth quarter, we learned how serious that apparent tweak to his knee was. A low shotgun snap left Griffin to turn and pick up the ball. That simple stress buckled his right knee. The video is hard to watch.

Not as hard as watching X-Mo of the 49ers' Mario Manningham losing two ligaments in his knee, but stomach-churning nonetheless.

Over the years, sports medicine has developed some incredible therapies for knee injuries, but it's tough to see any such damage, as it often spells the end of a season, and in some cases, a career. Manningham tore the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments in his left knee, and will most likely miss all of next season, if not the rest of his career. The early diagnosis on RG3 is a torn ACL, which means he will not be in the starting lineup at the beginning of next season.

We should not discount such injuries to "average" players, but in Griffin's case, a tragic spectre looms. The desire to keep playing, the sense of duty that drives an NFL player—in many cases, if they can walk, they want to go back into the game—drives far more decisions than long-term considerations.

And sometimes, somebody has to say no.

Griffin should not have returned after the first quarter aggravation of his right knee, which, after the Ravens game, was described as a sprain with no tears appearing in the imagery. Washington coach Mike Shanahan said after yesterday's game that he deferred to his rookie quarterback's judgment. And what should such a sensational talent as Griffin say? "I'm good to go, coach." One does not expect anything less, though sometimes one must demand less.

RG3 is the hope of a franchise, and a stellar light in this year's NFL. Among a nearly unbelievable class of rookie quarterbacks (namely Griffin, Andrew Luck of Indianapolis, and Seattle's Russell Wilson), Griffin was a clear favorite. With a 102.4 passer rating, he led rookie quarterbacks, outdone only by Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers (108.0) and Denver's Peyton Manning (105.8), and just edging fellow rookie Russel Wilson (100.0). Thirty-two hundred yards, T/I of 20:5, 815 rushing yards with seven more touchdowns. Griffin played an unbelievable rookie season, leading Washington from the NFC East's worst at 5-11 to a division-best 10-6.

For Washington fans, a new era seemed to be dawning.

And now? No doubt the burgundy and gold faithful will recover from the playoff loss, but storm clouds gather over the franchise now, as only time will tell what effects, short and long, Griffin's injury will have. Fingers are pointing, and recriminations are bouncing around the clubhouse. Coach Shanahan says he deferred to a rookie who said he was good to go: Of course they're going to say they're good to go, Coach. And this in the wake of a question about whether orthopedic surgeon James Andrews had cleared Griffin to return to action in Baltimore:

The following day, when the team revealed Griffin had suffered a sprained lateral collateral ligament, coach Mike Shanahan was asked why he had risked the health of his franchise quarterback by putting him back into the game.

Shanahan said he let Griffin return with the blessing of James Andrews, the renowned orthopedic surgeon, who was on the sideline.

Andrews, however, told USA TODAY Sports on Saturday that he never cleared Griffin to go back into the game, because he never even examined him.

"(Griffin) didn't even let us look at him," Andrews said. "He came off the field, walked through the sidelines, circled back through the players and took off back to the field. It wasn't our opinion.

"We didn't even get to touch him or talk to him. Scared the hell out of me."

Yet when asked by news reporters, Shanahan described a conversation with Andrews this way:

"He's on the sidelines with Dr. Andrews. He had a chance to look at him and he said he could go back in," Shanahan said Dec. 10. "(I said) 'Hey, Dr. Andrews, can Robert go back in?'

'Yeah, he can go back in.'

'Robert, go back in.'

"That was it," Shanahan said ....

.... "I'm the one that shut him down that day, finally," Andrews said. "I've been a nervous wreck letting him come back as quick as he has. He's doing a lot better this week, but he's still recovering and I'm holding my breath because of it.

"He passed all the tests and all the functional things we do, but it's been a trying moment for me, to be honest with you" ....

.... The risky behavior and apparent cover-up regarding Griffin's knee injury is even more curious when Andrews described the team's responsibility toward the rookie quarterback — "to make sure he's OK for the next 15 years," Andrews said. "That's what you have to watch out for for players, because they don't know."

Andrews added, "He's a competitor. He didn't want to let his team down."

(Klemko)​

And all that comes after the team paid a $20,000 fine for not properly disclosing a concussion Griffin suffered in the fifth week of the regular season.

Griffin will be back, eventually. A torn ACL is well within the capabilities of our sports medicine industry to fix. The question, of course, will be whether the Heisman-winning quarterback will ever be the same on the field. We will not know that answer until RG3 takes his next snaps during a game, and that might not be until the 2014 season.

Sunday's game was supposed to be one of the highlights of the NFL season, as two superstar quarterbacks, contenders for Rookie of the Year, came head to head in a loser-goes-home game. This should have been glorious, the kind of matchup the League and its fans desperately crave:

And for the average football fan, Griffin's injury and the fact that he kept playing on it most of the game helped put a damper on the first round of the NFL playoffs.

Normally this time of year is when we expect to see the best the NFL has to offer, with all of the riffraff finally sifted out. Like what we thought we were getting in the Redskins' game against the Seattle Seahawks, with two of the league's exciting rookie quarterbacks facing off in a do-or-die game.

But instead of seeing the dynamic Griffin who sparked the Redskins on a seven-game winning streak just to make the playoffs, we instead saw a hobbled quarterback who had no business being out there after he tweaked his knee early in the game. His backup, fellow rookie Kirk Cousins, might have been a step down from a healthy Griffin in the excitement department, but at least he would have given Washington a better chance to win.

(Schilken)​

Aside from the Super Bowl itself, this was supposed to be the game of the season.

And, for now, only a week into the new year, the big story is an injury that should never have happened.

Seattle fans, of course, are very happy with their Seahawks, and would probably be ecstatic—nobody really thought, at the outset, the team would see the post-season—except, as longtime football fans know, there is somehting more important at stake. One of the bright lights of the NFL's future now rests under a tragic cloud in a year when football needed some good news.

And coming from a football family, surely I will rally for next week's contest in Atlanta. But, for now, what should have been a great sports week—the second in a row, in fact, following Stanford's victory in the Rose Bowl and Seattle's week seventeen win against St. Louis—is indelibly stained by an injury that simply should not have happened.

Best wishes to Robert Griffin III. I want to see this guy tear up defenses for the next fifteen years. For now, though, it is enough to wish him back, healthy and strong, as soon as possible.
____________________

Notes:

Klemko, Robert. "Dr. James Andrews says he never cleared Robert Griffin III to go back into game after injury". USA Today. January 6, 2013. USAToday.com. January 7, 2013. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...rback-robert-griffin-iii-knee-injury/1811689/

Schilken, Chuck. "RG3 knee injury and more: Why wild-card weekend was kind of a rip-off". Los Angeles Times. January 7, 2013. LATimes.com. January 7, 2013. http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-rg3-wild-card-20130107,0,2676646.story

 

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I can't fathom why Shanahan left him in the game. He couldn't run and he couldn't throw, so even if you want to take the position that football is a game of risk and some big games are worth it, he wasn't giving them an advantage on the field. In fact, he was hurting them by being out there.

So what was the point?

Doubly confusing is the fact that Kirk Cousins is sitting on the sidelines despite proving after Griffin's initial injury that he can play at the NFL level. And it isn't as if Cousins didn't play in some big games at Michigan. This is one of those situations where a rookie's pedigree can pay off, and Shanahan blew it by opting--inexplicably--to run his injured starter out on the field. And then why lie about it? James Andrews never cleared him, yet Shanahan tells the press that he did...I mean, seriously? Does he just expect that nobody's going to verify this with the most famous surgeon in the sports world?

But then, I didn't understand Shanahan's decision to tell the media that Donovan McNabb struggled learning the playbook, instead of just saying that he was getting benched for his sub-par performance. It's almost as if Mike Shanahan has never dealt with people before, so this decision, while perplexing, is totally in line with the random inanity that so often surrounds him.

 

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correction, heard "around US". The world does not care what happens in US as much as US does, and football is an american game. If something does happen in the world of sports, it will be soccer on the frontline of the world scene, certainly not football. A sport that has been proven to be causing head injuries on the regular with its players, how dumb are these football players? dumb enough to compromise their health and sanity for a chance at millions.

 

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Correction: Heard around the world. The Super Bowl is the most-watched event internationally on non-World Cup years. The entire world follows the NFL.

 

This and That

I'm going to go with poor judgment. Shanahan seems to be a bit overrated as a coach. His prestige comes from his time as an assistant with the Denver Broncos, where he served as quarterbacks coach and, eventually, offensive coordinator. That is to say, as coaching gigs go, it's easy to look good when your QB is John Elway.

But his 7-9 season with the L.A. Raiders is enough to call his judgment into question. Fired in 1989 amid a front-office version of a blood feud, he returned to Denver, and then went on to serve as offensive coordinator under George Seifert, where he is said to have fueled the old feud by instructing quarterback Elvis Grbac to aim a pass at the head of Raiders owner Al Davis.

To the one, working for Seifert certainly polished Shanahan's resume—a Super Bowl ring tends to do that. To the other, if Grbac's story is accurate, well, something about poor judgment goes here.

So he returned to Denver to take the head coaching job, where he did win two more rings with Elway under center. Of course, after he lost Elway as his QB, he went seven years without a playoff win. Then he got one, and proceeded to go another three seasons without making the playoffs.

And then he arrived in Washington. His career record is a repectable .572 for the regular season, and .571 in the playoffs.

Washington started the season 3-6 this year, and closed strong. One might suggest it's easier to look good as a coach when you have a stellar talent like RG3 under center.

It is hard to properly answer the question of how good a coach Mike Shanahan actually is. That is to say, it is unfair to suggest he is a bad head coach; regardless of his Elway pedigree, it requires considerable intelligence and skill to win two consecutive Super Bowls. But it is fair to suggest that he is overrated.

And that comes down to a question of judgment. RG3 would not necessarily be successful under "any head coach", but to hear Shanahan say that he deferred to his quarterback? Griffin might be a sensational athlete, but he was also a rookie in his first playoff game. A vital part of a head coach's job is to teach young players how to survive the league, and you don't do that by letting a superstar rookie try to carry the team when his very career is in danger. I can accept that Shanahan deferred to Griffin, but it was a terrible decision to do so.

Last year, Shanahan led Washington to a 5-11 record. This year, with RG3, the team managed 10-6, a tremendous turnaround. Griffin's contribution to that success is immeasurable, to be certain, and of course the young quarterback wanted to play on.

It's a time when a coach needs to say no.

And, as one of my friends pointed out, Kirk Cousins is the kind of quarterback who can run the very plays Washington needed after they fell behind.

Hindsight is what it is, and if Shanahan benched Griffin for caution and lost, there would be all sorts of sound and fury. It is always hard in the moment to say one chose to trade the present for the future, but in this case, that's Shanahan's job. And, besides, if putting Cousins in earlier equals trading away the game, the kid shouldn't be in a pro uniform.

• • •​

Whatever. The phrase "heard 'round the world" is ingrained into the American culture, which ought to be apparent to anyone not looking for a reason to whine.

To the other, you do have a point. Compromising health and sanity? Well, there is a love of the game that, apparently, you don't understand, but I do have a certain respect for their sacrifices that I just can't give soccer players, who are such godforsaken divas that they routinely pretend to be injured.

There are no flops in American football. Indeed, when someone takes a dive, they are condemned and ridiculed.

Soccer has much about it that demands respect, but where American football is a gladiator sport, international futbol is grotesquely tarnished by rewarding pretentious, sniveling weakness.

So spare us the pedantry, please. Well, at least until soccer players stop all that ridiculous flopping.

"Oh! Oh! It hurts! My God, I can't walk! Did you see what he did? Trying to end my career! Waaah! Huh? What? Oh, he got a yellow card? Alright. I'm okay, now. I can play."​

No, really, it's a disgrace.

And so are the effing riots. And the teams refusing to take the field because the fans hurt their feelings. And the fans who aim to hurt those feelings with mass displays of racism. And, hell, the Milan incident was just a "friendly".

If you wish to whine about the supremacy of soccer, start a thread.

 

I don't really think this has much to do with his prowess as a playcaller or necessarily his abilities as a head coach (though I understand the argument that making precisely this kind of decision falls under the purview of a head coach and therefore must be taken into account when assessing said coach's performance). I like the system the run in Washington, I like their dedication to the ground game in a league that's all about the empty set and screen passes in lieu of pitches or stretch runs. He has a QB that can throw the ball with the best of them, yet he maximizes his potential by establishing the run and opening up the play action. Sure, you could argue that he always did that, and it's true that his plug-n-play offenses in Denver resulted in plenty of big paydays for running backs who weren't as good as their numbers suggested, but that's a good thing.

His choice to keep RG3 on the field speaks to something else about him. Some personality flaw, I think. If he based it on the potential media fallout, then he needs to reevaluate his priorities. But given his amount of blunders, it seems odd that he would suddenly decide to play it safe. So there's something else going on, I think. Maybe it's the "Old School" ball coach in him, which is in this day and age a very ugly trait. Whatever the case, it needs to change. Sadly, ESPN chose to continue its love affair with Quarterback Porn and, rather than hold this nitwit responsible for potentially ending a young player's career (or, perhaps more realistically, severely stunting it) they praised Griffin's "courage." It's bad enough that the worldwide leader in sports coverage doesn't deign to talk about defensive schemes or the importance of an offensive line, instead pretending that the quarterback is the only player that makes a difference, but now they're setting a really dangerous precedent in lauding the very same deference to machismo that is behind the tsunami of concussion-related lawsuits that could ultimately neuter the NFL and knock it off its perch as the most-watched sport in the country. "Protecting the player" is a buzz-phrase on every sports outlet, yet ESPN is only giving it lip service.

 

Heard around the world?
Is this like the ... ummm... "World Series" baseball? ... Americans.


*edit.. oh wait, someone else pointed that out already.

And Balerion... I doubt it. Soccer would probably take out the most watched sport.
I mean I'd really like to see how whoever came up with your particular statistic arrived at his figures. Think about it.

 

Get a clue. Soccer has it's problem with concussive head injuries and the players don't where a helmet. Soccer's the biggest game in the World. Not in America. The athleticism and power exhibited during an NFL game is awesome while soccer just bores me to smithereens.

 

Soccer is big in Seattle, that's USA.

The case I am making is two-fold, the OP understand that football is a US thing mainly, the world watches soccer meanwhile.
The second case I am making is that football is more dangerous than soccer due to the constant head injuries exhibited by the players: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-M...-Head-Injuries-and-a-Look-Towards-the-Future/

 

And two people already debunked "someone else's" inane claim.

What didn't you understand about "Most-watched event in non-World Cup years?" In World Cup years, the World Cup is the most-watched sporting event in the world, with the Super Bowl coming in second. At least that's what I read several years ago. I think the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony drew a billion viewers, or some ridiculous number.

...you've never heard of television ratings?

I find that "think about it" is often used when someone doesn't actually have anything to say, yet can't fight the impulse to speak anyway.

 

Soccer is a good game when played at the highest levels, but the lack of integrity of the players really sullies the game, and it has nowhere near the physicality or the strategy of the NFL.

 

Both boring and stupid as hell.

 

Soccer's a great game for your kids. Ask them if they would rather attend a game featuring your local soccer team or the Seahawks. Your point was to disparage American football. The NFL is trying to do something about head injuries. You need to do your homework since you don't realize the research correlating concussive head injuries and Lou Gehrig disease includes a high incidence associated with soccer. Specifically the 'header'. I tried to get the important research paper but they want $107 for it. It was featured on the Bryant Gumbel Real Sports show last year. Soccer was #2 on the list not far behind American football. Get a clue trying to set soccer against real football in the USA.

 

The Rising Storm

'Tis true I'm speculating at least a little. And, also, that I don't like Shanahan, anyway, dating back to the Seahawks' time in the AFC West; I still loathe the Denver Broncos, and had I my druthers, the 'Hawks would get the blue and orange on Super Bowl Sunday. But, of course, that's in the future, and the next step is Atlanta.

More to the point, though, Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins tore Shanahan and the Washington front office a new one today:

There is no confusion over Robert Griffin III’s knee — and there never was. The Washington Redskins drafted a healthy, thrilling young player and by the time they got done using him up this season he lurched around like a pirate with a peg leg. Let’s be clear: Griffin is not suffering from an “old” injury, or from just one injury either. Anyone with eyes saw the kid hurt his knee three times in the past month, twice in the same playoff game, until one strained ligament turned into two torn ones. Every decision-maker in the organization, from the rock-headed coach to the renowned surgeon in the silly team pom-pon cap, is responsible for that.

Yeah, we get the cute distinction between “injured” and “hurt” that Mike Shanahan keeps trying to make, and we understand the play-with-pain culture of the NFL. But here is the real distinction: Griffin started an NFC playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks already hurt and wound up badly injured, to the point that it could compromise his future. The supposed confusion over how much Shanahan and Dr. James Andrews consult on the sidelines, and the purported murkiness of Griffin’s MRI, whether it shows partial or full tears to his ACL and LCL, is nothing more than rope-a-dope and rationalizing, feeble attempts to excuse the indefensible.

Griffin should never have been back on the field after halftime against the Seattle Seahawks last Sunday, and if the people in the organization weren’t so starved for success, they would have made a better decision about that.

There is nothing subtle about the situation. Ample evidence shows Griffin shouldn’t have been out there, more than enough to override the pleas of an impassioned rookie who wanted to play. Griffin’s right knee has already been reconstructed once, in 2009 when he was at Baylor. The Redskins spent three first-round draft picks to get Griffin in uniform, and he is the most expensive and valuable player they have had in 25 years. Do you think for a moment they didn’t study MRIs of that knee as if it were Sanskrit before giving up those draft choices for him? You think they don’t know what his knee should look like?​

And it goes on:

To repeat: Somehow the Redskins allowed their top draft choice, their best quarterback in a generation, to hurt his knee three times without adequately protecting their investment. The guess here is that Griffin will be lucky to be fully healthy in a year, and frankly, if he has fully torn the ACL, there is some question as to whether that knee will be quite the same.

There is plenty of blame to spread for this state of affairs. What was Andrews doing on that sideline, other than wearing a team hat and providing political cover? Let’s not overlook the role of those who let Kenny Chesney fans and assorted college teams trample Fed Ex Field into such execrable condition without properly repairing it. Then there is Griffin himself, who hasn’t yet learned to play with discretion and to protect others’ investment in him.

But the one who had more responsibility than anyone else was Shanahan. He wanted institutional control of the Redskins, prized a CEO-like role, and he got it. There is no taking the burden of this decision off him. It is no great pleasure to say this, because what Shanahan did with the Redskins this season was worthy of deep respect, right up until this week.

Shanahan may be too flinty and defensive to say it, but he made quite simply one of the worst decisions of his life as head coach, and it’s hard to believe that behind closed doors, away from the second-guessing media, he isn’t ramming his head into a wall over it. We can’t know what his “gut” decision to let Griffin keep playing was based on, whether it was his own extreme disposition as a former quarterback who played hurt to the point that he ruptured his kidney, or whether he was simply too indulgent of Griffin, allowed his quarterback to spell-bind him as he has the audience.​

This could, depending on the long-term diagnosis, cost Shanahan his job.

For me, football goes beyond winning and losing. Indeed, sports in general are that way. No matter how much I loathe John Elway as the Broncos' legendary quarterback, I still know I was witness to one of the greatest tenures under center that will ever be. Maybe an athlete is on the "wrong" team, as such, but when you see the form of a given sport inching toward unthinkable perfection, it is impossible to ignore.

And that's how it is for Griffin.

The only thing I really have against the Washington club is their name, and that's a separate issue for another day; I'm well aware it ain't changing anytime soon. Life goes on.

This game, though? The two best rookie quarterbacks in the league? Two teams making remarkable runs in their recovery from performance droughts? Two cities lifted from a mixture of ho-hum disinterest and pressurizing frustration, electrified by brilliance that exceeded all expectations? This is what sports are for, in the broader social context. Sunday should have been a bigger impact than Shoemaker-Levy crashing into Jupiter. This was a cosmic alignment.

And, yes, maybe I'm selfish in that way, because what I will remember, for years to come, is that buckling right knee, and all its implications and effects, and all the bad decisions that led to it.

If Shanahan did the smart thing and still lost, people would be calling for his head. But he could always stand up and say the obvious, which is now what people are throwing at him in angry accusation.

Whatever else comes, I just want Griffin back in form, when he's ready. I would hate to think that bad snap extinguished one of the brightest lights of football seasons yet to come.

(On a more positive note, Dan Stenberg and Sarah Kogod's game recap posted Sunday evening is entertaining.)
____________________

Notes:

Jenkins, Sally. "Redskins invested in Robert Griffin III, then everyone put his future in jeopardy". The Washington Post. January 8, 2013. WashingtonPost.com. January 8, 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...bf6df8-59b3-11e2-9fa9-5fbdc9530eb9_story.html

Steinberg, Dan and Sarah Kogod. "Redskins-Seahawks best and worst". DC Sports Bog. January 6, 2013. WashingtonPost.com. January 8, 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2013/01/06/redskins-seahawks-best-and-worst/

See Also:

Svrluga, Barry. "Condition of FedEx Field turf comes under attack from many directions". The Washington Post. January 7, 2013. WashingtonPost.com. January 8, 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...5d62b6-5911-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_story.html

 

I'm glad Ms. Jenkins mentioned Griffin's own role in this. As I said before, ESPN has been deifying this kid for playing injured, so it's good to see someone actually reminding the world that he's partially to blame. That isn't to absolve Shanahan at all, just to say that players need to be held accountable, as well.

 

I agree with most of what you said. A bit arm chair QB. Pretty sure that RG3 wanted to stay on the field. I would have pulled him based on performance associated with his loss of mobility along with the threat of further injury. I'm a AFC West season ticket holder for 'longtime'. I'd vilify Shanahan based on dirty line play over his years in Denver. More 'zone blocking' now than ever before. Better rules helps. When they showed the early dominating running replays the zone blocking scheme was awesome. To bad the Redskins were up against the best defensive mind in football. Pete Carroll.

 

RG3: "See you guys next season"

RG3: "See you guys next season"

"Thank you for your prayers and support. I love God, my family, my team, the fans, & I love this game. See you guys next season." —Robert Griffin III​

Is it possible? Could Robert Griffin III actually "be ready for the 2013 season"? According to orthopedist James Andrews, yes.

Joseph White, for Associated Press:

If Adrian Peterson can do it, maybe Robert Griffin III can, too.

Peterson set an incredible standard this season for NFL players returning from major knee surgery, nearly breaking the NFL single-season rushing record. Griffin need look nowhere else for an inspiration as the Washington Redskins quarterback begins the road back from an operation Wednesday on two ligaments in his right knee.

"I think it gives motivation to everyone," said Russ Paine, a physical therapist in Houston who worked with the Peterson as the Minnesota Vikings running back went through rehab.

Griffin had his lateral collateral ligament repaired and his ACL reconstructed for a second time. The surgery was performed in Florida by orthopedist James Andrews, who was optimistic that Griffin would be back on the field this fall.

"We expect a full recovery, and it is everybody's hope and belief that due to Robert's high motivation, he will be ready for the 2013 season," Andrews said in a statement released by the Redskins. "The goal of his treatment is to give him the best opportunity for a long professional career."

But no two athletes - or knee surgeries, for that matter - are exactly alike, so pinning down a date for Griffin's return is an inexact science. Complicating matters is that Griffin tore the ACL in the same knee in 2009 while playing for Baylor.

University of Maryland head team physician Craig Bennett said football players typically need seven to 11 months to return from a second ACL reconstruction, but that it often takes up to a year for the ligament to be fully healed.​

ACL tears are the most infamous of knee injuries, and running back Adrian Peterson did also require repair to a damaged medial collateral ligament. And, yes, it is true that Peterson's recovery time and 2012 performance are the stuff of legend.

But Robert Griffin III is not Adrian Peterson, anymore than the Vikings' star running back is the Washington quarterback. There is a long and difficult off-season awaiting RG3, and, well, the good news is coming from a doctor who has suddenly become one of the football season's most controversial figures.

But in addition to Griffin's physical talent is his mental outlook. The rosy surgical report, combined with the Heisman winner's tenacious optimism and outstanding work ethic, as well as the hopes, prayers, and love of the Washington football faithful bring hope to the NFL universe. Number Ten's star has not yet fallen, and we all hope it shines brightly for years to come.
____________________

Notes:

Griffin, Robert. "Thank you for your prayers and support." Twitter. January 9, 2013. Twitter.com. January 9, 2013. https://twitter.com/RGIII/status/288983828876365824

White, Joseph. "Doctor optimistic after Redskins' RG3 knee surgery". Associated Press. January 9, 2013. SeattleTimes.com. January 9, 2013. http://seattletimes.com/html/sports/2020088107_apfbnredskinsrg3sknee.html

 

Hopes, prayers, and love won't factor into his healing process. It's all about what he's physically made of.

And I'm sure there are countless Giants, Cowboys, and Eagles fans who wish him a slow and painful setback or two along the way.

 

I liked playing when I was young and I watched University football when I was IN University. But afterwards I just grew out of that stuff. It's a game for Chrit's sake.

 

Rugby can total wipe the floor with American football! Nothing like a bunch of men all huddled close pushing on each other

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