One of the more baffling falls from grace over the past half decade was Robert Griffin III. Now as he leaves Washington a flop, his former head coach Mike Shanahan opens up about how it all went wrong.
Most believe it was a simple case of Griffin becoming gunshy following his bad knee injury suffered in the 2012 playoffs against Seattle. However, Shanahan believes it wasn’t RGIII who was affected most by the setback, but the Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. It’s his stance that the two conspired together to get Shanahan and his staff to change the offense in order to make him more of a pocket passer.
"“According to TheUndefeated.com, Griffin called a meeting with Shanahan, his son and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and quarterbacks coach Matt LaFleur in February of 2013 and told them to let him speak without interruption. He then informed them that there were 19 plays in Washington’s offense that he would no longer run because he believed he needed to be treated like a pocket passer and not a running quarterback.“When Robert is standing there going through all of that, I know it’s coming from Dan,” Shanahan said. “When Robert talked about ‘unacceptable,’ that was a word Dan used all the time. He was using phrases Dan used all the time. There’s only one way a guy who’s going into his second year would do something like this: If he sat down with the owner and the owner believed that this is the way he should be used. He had to have the full support of the owner and, in my opinion, the general manager to even have a conversation like that. He just had the best year for a rookie QB in the history of the game. You got selected to the Pro Bowl. We went to the playoffs.”"
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Then and to this day it was baffling to Mike Shanahan. Not only how Griffin spoke to them but also how blatantly meddlesome Snyder was with things he couldn’t possibly know as much about as his own coaches. Especially one in Shanahan who had three Super Bowl rings as a head coach and coordinator. Then again this is nothing new in regards to the Redskins owner.
He purchased the team in May of 1999. Over that span Washington has changed head coaches seven times. Norv Turner was fired midseason in 2000 and soon his interim replacement Terry Robiskie was as well. Marty Schottenheimer came in the next season under the agreement he would have full head coach and general manager authorities. A year later Snyder wanted to withdraw that assurance and Schottenheimer resigned.
His inability to field a consistent winner and constantly wanting to change things even when they’re working is a big reason Washington Redskins fans hate him. This latest revelation about Mike Shanahan and Robert Griffin III is merely another feather in the cap.