Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III said he wasn’t happy with not being cleared to play after officially learning of the decision Saturday night. Griffin has a grade 1 lateral collateral ligament sprain, suffered a week ago.
“Players play, so I was not happy with the decision,” he said, “but at the end of the day, that’s the decision they went with. I respect that, but that doesn’t mean that I necessarily have to like it.”
Griffin said he felt as if he could play and prepared himself accordingly. But the Redskins, wanting to protect him, opted for long-term thinking rather than short term.
“Well, like I said, any time you talk to a doctor, and the doctors say the LCL is not ready to play, then he’s not ready to play,” Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said. “I was impressed with how hard he worked. I liked what I saw and we’ll be evaluating him day-by-day for next week. He had rehab today, worked extremely hard this morning for a few hours and the doctors have been very impressed on how it’s come along. I can’t tell you anything until the doctors clear him.”
For Griffin, he didn’t want to let teammates down, watching left tackle Trent Williams, for example, play with a deep thigh bruise that he said would have landed him on injured reserve had he been a rookie.
“Yeah. I mean, like I said, you respect the decision,” Griffin said. “You understand what their viewpoint was. But I think all players know we’re brought here to perform, to help our team win, and that’s what I’m here to do. I wanted to play, and they decided that I didn’t need to play, and it worked out great for us.
“Just long-term, obviously. Protecting me from myself, not allowing me to go out there and put myself in harm’s way.”
