Scathing article a must read!!! By Sally Jenkins

[DaSkinz Baby]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/re ... ml?hpid=z2

Redskins invested in Robert Griffin III, then everyone put his future in jeopardy

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 a strained ligament turned into a torn one. Every decision maker in the organization, from the rock-headed coach to the renowned surgeon in the silly team pompom cap, is responsible for that.

Yeah, we get the cute distinction between “injured” and “hurt” that Coach 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 so badly injured that he requires surgery on his torn lateral collateral ligament, and his future is compromised. The supposed confusion over how much Shanahan and orthopedic surgeon James Andrews consulted on the sideline, and over the extent of damage to Griffin’s knee, 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 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 University. 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 MRI exams 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?

Four weeks ago, when Griffin hurt his LCL against the Baltimore Ravens, the Redskins were overjoyed to announce that an MRI showed no structural damage at that time. He had just a “strained” ligament. There was no trouble reading that picture — it was totally clear to them.

You didn’t need a grainy medical film to know that Griffin came back too soon from the LCL strain when he completed just 9 of 18 passes for 100 yards and no touchdowns against the Dallas Cowboys in the final game of the regular season. A deadly accurate 70 percent passer became a so-so 50 percent passer.

What a strain means is that the ligament is dangerously stretched, if not already partially torn. There was only one real question for Shanahan and Andrews from that point on: whether Griffin could continue to play without injuring himself further. The whole point of putting him in a cumbersome leg brace was to prevent an injury from turning into something worse.

“Probably doesn’t have to wear it, but the doctors thought it would be best for him to wear it, to protect it, so we don’t further injure the LCL,” Shanahan said last week.

It was the one thing they were all supposed to be guarding against.
In the opening quarter against the Seahawks, it was plain that something went badly wrong with the knee. Griffin opened the game by completing 6 of 9 passes for 68 yards and two touchdowns. But he wrenched his knee on an incompletion just before he threw the second touchdown. He completed just 4 of 11 passes and ran just one keeper over the next three quarters, clearly laboring, until that hideous moment when he was so stiff-legged that he couldn’t recover a fumbled snap and his leg slid out from under him at that awkward angle.

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 anterior cruciate ligament, there is some question as to whether that knee will ever 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 FedEx 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 spellbind him as he has the audience.

There isn’t a coach on the planet who doesn’t obsess over knees, who doesn’t know exactly what stresses them, and who can’t diagram a knee. They all understand how playing with an injury alters movement, and creates complications and potential chain reactions. It’s hard to believe that Shanahan didn’t understand exactly what was going on when Griffin’s accuracy fell from 70 percent to 50 percent — that he couldn’t plant properly on that knee. Above all, Shanahan should have understood whom he was dealing with: Griffin plays a dangerous brand of football with his legs, one that courts injury in the first place.

For a while, it looked like the RGIII-Shanahan partnership was so good, so electric, that they could overcome the Redskins’ terrible recent past. Instead, all of the old organizational flaws seem present again: the half-truths and rationalizations for terrible decisions, and the habit of spending too heavily today and mortgaging tomorrow.

[LORD GIBBS]

think people get bored

[gibbsfan]

just another trying to get a nut ...must be bored your right LG.

[UK Skins Fan]

I make a point of never reading anything written by Sally Jenkins, but thanks very much.

[tribeofjudah]

she's a twit.....change the vowel

[TimSkin]

Ummm does this lady realize that Dr. Andrews has been on our sideline all year and is the teams Orthopaedic consultant?

[SkinsJock]

I make a point of never reading anything written by Sally Jenkins, but thanks very much.

Me too

However - I read the article then I see that the article is copied - WHY

anyhow - it just confirms what I used to think about this twit - she's STUPID and she has an agenda that is anti Redskins

DaSkinz - the answer to you question is I used to 'believe' - thanks for confirming it again - Jenkins is a LOSER

[fetus]

put her in the same category as Milloy. They are both retarded.

[Irn-Bru]

I won't read it. If she's ever right about anything related to the Redskins, it's thanks to being a broken clock.

She's a critical, ugly bore, and a bad writer to boot.

[skinsfan#33]

I'm sorry, but NO ARTICLE written by that harpe Sally Jenkins is a must read! Must avoid, yes! Read, no!

If she makes any good points in an article, it is purely by accident! However, I will not read her dribble any longer to find out.

[TimSkin]

I won't read it. If she's ever right about anything related to the Redskins, it's thanks to being a broken clock.

She's a critical, ugly bore, and a bad writer to boot.

After reading this article and that Courtland dude's article I'm thanking the lucky stars that I don't have to put up with that crap everyday.

[skinsfan#33]

she's a twit.....change the vowel

Yes, she is a cup of Earl Grey on Trans World Airlines!

[langleyparkjoe]

Sally Jenkins has been one of the Shanahan's biggest supporters since they got here. During the season you couldn't pay that woman to talk trash about them so when I read the article I was completely surprised she went at them like that.

A lot of what she said is what I hear people saying on the Metro train, the Metro bus, and the Ride-On bus.. so it's not like she's the only one with those views.

Maybe I'm interpreting it different than you guys but I agree.. and I'm not talkin about silly things that she missed, I'm talkin bout her overall point.

[Countertrey]

I don't read anything by Jenkins... It was clear, LONG AGO, that her agenda steers what she attempts to pass off as journalism.

[emoses14]

put her in the same category as Milloy. They are both retarded.

No. Sally has her own wing of the mental health facility. Courtland Milloy only has his moments. Sally never has anything other than spite to spew.

[CanesSkins26]

Sally Jenkins has been one of the Shanahan's biggest supporters since they got here. During the season you couldn't pay that woman to talk trash about them so when I read the article I was completely surprised she went at them like that.

A lot of what she said is what I hear people saying on the Metro train, the Metro bus, and the Ride-On bus.. so it's not like she's the only one with those views.

Maybe I'm interpreting it different than you guys but I agree.. and I'm not talkin about silly things that she missed, I'm talkin bout her overall point.

+1

[SkinsJock]

I'm sure there's a lot of people that 'share' Sally Jenkins views

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at here ..

anyone that shares Sally Jenkins 'views' and admits to it, is just as stupid and brain dead as she is

not saying you are lpj, but anyone else that does is for sure VERY STUPID

[RayNAustin]

Sally Jenkins has been one of the Shanahan's biggest supporters since they got here. During the season you couldn't pay that woman to talk trash about them so when I read the article I was completely surprised she went at them like that.

A lot of what she said is what I hear people saying on the Metro train, the Metro bus, and the Ride-On bus.. so it's not like she's the only one with those views.

Maybe I'm interpreting it different than you guys but I agree.. and I'm not talkin about silly things that she missed, I'm talkin bout her overall point.

I don't normally read much of anything in the Washington Post, because it's a long throw to get down here So I don't have a basis for judging her, nor would I judge anyone's opinion today based on other unrelated opinions past. To me, that's just massively ignorant to say that because I disagreed with your point yesterday, I shall forever disagree with you in the future. As the old saying goes, "if everyone is thinking the same thing, somebody isn't thinking".

In this case, I am in 100% total agreement with her, and if she has been up till now, a staunch supporter of the Shanaclan, then that ought to ring a freaking bell or light a bulb.

It's traditionally been accepted that Redskin fans are some of the most knowledgeable fans around ... but sadly ... I wouldn't draw such a conclusion from the responses to this issue.

The rather sycophantic blind support of the Shanahan regime is almost reminiscent of the blind political support of corrupt politicians up there.

Maybe there is something being added to the water in the District of Criminals and surrounding areas.

[RayNAustin]

I'm sure there's a lot of people that 'share' Sally Jenkins views

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at here ..

anyone that shares Sally Jenkins 'views' and admits to it, is just as stupid and brain dead as she is

not saying you are lpj, but anyone else that does is for sure VERY STUPID

So, if dumb ole sally said the sun would rise in the eastern sky tomorrow morning ... you'd be the first genius to disagree?

Let me put on my sunglasses ... you're blinding brilliance is greater than the Western Sunrise, and too much for my eyes

[RayNAustin]

Frankly, I don't think anyone, including this article lets it "all hand out", but here goes, and let the arrows fly at dumb ole Ray ...

Here's a description of how ACL injuries tend to occur:

What causes a torn ACL?

"Most anterior cruciate ligament injuries occur due to trauma, usually in a sport or fitness activity. The ligament gets stretched or tears when the foot is firmly planted, the knee locks and twists or pivots at the same time. This commonly occurs in basketball, football, soccer, and gymnastics, where a sudden change in direction stresses and damages the ligament. These injuries are usually noncontact, occur at low speed, and occur as the body is decelerating"

Now look at the play in the first quarter, just before the 2nd TD pass, and tell me that is not almost an EXACT MATCH to the action RG3 was involved when he fell in pain and ripped his helmet off?

The most reasonable conclusion is that this is when he tore his ACL, and then proceeded to play severely injured for the duration of the game. And I want to know how that can happen with an orthopedic expert on the sideline, who is expert in these matters?

This is the REAL issue .... the issue of allowing him to play on one known sprained ligament, and a newly torn ligament for the majority of the game.

I say we have a case of negligence more so than just poor judgement.

[langleyparkjoe]

I'm kind of confused because what did she say that has so many of you "up-in-arms"?

If you hated her articles for her always being on Shanahans..."basketball-balls" in the past, than this article is something you should appreciate because she carried the begeezes outta him this time around.

I don't know man, I guess interpretation is really a heck of a thing.

[Redskin in Canada]

I only have ONE question:

Who are the posters who voted YES in the Poll?

Show yourselves.

[HTTRRG3ALMO]

Aww that's said. I've heard from a "very reliable doctor source" that when a lady gets that yeast thing in the woo hoo they start writing pointless things to get their mind on something else.

Get well soon Sally!! DON'T SCRATCH IT!!

[tribeofjudah]

I won't read it. If she's ever right about anything related to the Redskins, it's thanks to being a broken clock.

She's a critical, ugly bore, and a bad writer to boot.

I also did NOT read this article......waste of my time

[NYFINESTSKINSFAN]

Good article. Hard to argue her reason.