Video: The Washington Post’s Mike Jones breaks down the Redskins’ loss against the Seattle Seahawks and Robert Griffin III’s injured knee. And find out what the team needs to do in the offseason to stay competitive next year.
The coach undergoes major recriminations today, skewered for not looking out for the long-term health of the franchise’s best player.
Shanahan and Griffin are both stubborn, proud men whose resiliency at different times enabled them to be employed by the Hurt Business. No matter how many concussion experts the NFL has in the booth and on the sideline, until Roger Goodell gives a team physician authority over a head coach to make in-game decisions these incidents will continue to happen.
Each week, let us know how the heralded rookie will play and then grade his performance.
Look, the eye test will tell you Griffin should not have been out there. The more you watched him — his gait, his body language — you just cringed in pain for the kid.
But if you’re Mike Shanahan, you know two things: 1) you wouldn’t be here if No. 10 had not taken you along on this magic-carpet ride with him. And 2) Robert Griffin III has shown to have more recuperative powers than Lazarus, having already played the same week he suffered a concussion and he took the practice field after what everyone thought was a grotesque end-of-the-season knee injury against Baltimore.
You were either going to the mountaintop with him or down in flames. There was no in between. When you’re dealing with the guts and heart of men like Shanahan and Griffin, that’s how it’s always going to be.
Also, ask yourself this — and be honest: Would you have felt any differently about Shanahan’s decision if Washington wins this game, that somehow, some way, a hobbled Griffin led them back from the brink to their first playoff victory in seven years?
He would have been feted like Willis Reed was in 1973, like Kirk Gibson double-clutching his fist as he limped around the bases after his miraculous walk-off homer.
The point is, many of us feel differently — offended in some corners, disgusted in others — because of the outcome. I don’t remember anyone questioning the coaching or medical staffs of the Knicks, Dodgers and Bulls for putting their players at risk of further injury.
Those are the forever moments in sports we put up on pedestals, to remind us, after all the money and the glory and the fame, how much another human being actually wants it.
Did Shanahan err? Probably. Did Griffin? Sure. But it’s not that easy to just tear the coach apart. In fact, I can’t do it. Mike Shanahan and Robert Griffin III, had they been born at the same time, could have been brothers from another mother when it comes to who they are as people, as persevering survivors.
The reason more than 80,000 people rose in euphoria at FedEx Field the past few months is precisely because of the heart and resilience of the coach and the quarterback. You take that away from them, you make them rational, clear-thinking adults in the crucible of competition . . . there is no playoff game for the first time in 13 years in Washington on Sunday.
It’s their nature. It’s who they are. And all the recriminations in the world will not change that.
For previous columns by Mike Wise, visit washingtonpost.com/wise.
More on the Redskins:
The Takeaway: End comes for RGIII, Redskins
After promising start, Washington crumbles
Summary: Seahawks 24, Redskins 14
The end comes, and it’s painful
Boswell: Seeing the NFL at its best, worst
Takeaway: No reason to hang their heads
The highs and lows of Redskins fandom
Redskins’ defense bends, then breaks
Offense stalls after two early drives
Seahawks’ Wilson is the last rookie QB standing
Bog: Best and worst from the Redskins-Seahawks game
Photos: Griffin’s injury
Photos: Scenes from the stadium
Bog: Williams-Sherman postgame confrontation
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