There is a feud that has broken out between former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III and his head coach, Jay Gruden, who is in his final year with the organization. This feud has been made public on social media for everyone to follow.
The situation has reached a stage where Gruden has stated that his former quarterback is not “good enough,” on the other hand, Kirk Cousins, the quarterback who took over in Washington under Gruden after Griffin started the first seven games of the 2014 season, “was better.”
This was said by Gruden in a post that has since been deleted, further adding, “Cleveland did not want you. The city of Baltimore did not either. Stop pointing the finger at me. But where does all of this originate?
When Gruden was watching the Wild Card game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday, he noted that the Eagles’ offense was unable to pick up a blitz.
“If I ever put a QB through what Philly is putting Jalen through, I apologize,” Gruden told reporters. “Pick up a blitz!”
Griffin took advantage of the chance presented by the post to retaliate against his former coach by posting a picture of himself with the text “Say WHAT???” and a picture of himself looking confused. Specifically, he was implying that Gruden had done so with him in 2014 when he took over as head coach of Washington after Mike Shanahan had been in charge for four seasons.
Gruden responded by saying, “U weren’t prepared Robert?,” and the dual-threat quarterback turned sports media personality responded with another picture of himself looking perplexed while captioning it, “You told me you didn’t know how to coach a quarterback who could throw and run like me, so it looks like you weren’t prepared Jay.” Gruden continued by saying, “You weren’t prepared, Jay.”
According to Griffin, the situation on social media escalated to the point where he addressed his friendship with Gruden and what was happening today with their public rift on his podcast titled “RG3 and The Ones.”
I am not going to curse the man out, and I am not going to call him anything other than his name if Jay Gruden is very serious about having a conversation with me. I am going to tell you guys the truth, but first I will tell you the truth.
In addition, the fact of the issue is that there was a particular time in Washington, DC that is recalled quite clearly. There was a news conference that Jay Gruden attended, and at that press conference, he undressed me in a manner that a coach would never do to his starting quarterback.
After that, Griffin went on to explain that he had made a statement in the media, stating that “the best players in the NFL have the guys around them play at an extremely high level.” This statement implied that his teammates needed to stand up for him because Washington had gotten off to a horrible start in 2014.
However, it was not well received because the media essentially stated that Griffin was putting his teammates in a position where they were being punished. But according to Griffin, Gruden wanted him to do it in front of the press. This was something that Griffin said.
“He doubled down on it, and picked me apart in the media,” Griffin explained. “He was very aggressive about it.” They don’t know that the only reason I went to that press conference and said what I said to challenge my teammates during that press conference was because Jay Gruden requested me to do that.
This is something that people don’t know. What stung me about it was that after I did that in the press conference, not only did Jay Gruden not have my back, but he actively torched me with it.
This was the thing that hit me the worst. The following day, he made his appearance and slandered me in the media. The following day, he came out in a meeting, which took place in the room that we use for team meetings, and he torched me in front of my teammates.
“[I] accepted responsibility for the things that I uttered. I apologized to my teammates in front of the team meeting since it was taken out of context and I was taken out of context. Now, Jay, although he was aware that he had asked me to do that, still went to the media and tore me down in the media. Even in that room, it is the fact that he has no self-awareness and no integrity. The reason for this is that although he asked me to do anything, he did not dare to have my back.
“You really wanna play this game?” Gruden asked in response to the video clip that was uploaded to Griffin’s X account. He went so far as to share a video of Griffin competing against a hawk, captioning it with the phrase “Go race a pigeon.”
“First and foremost, you HAVE NO RIGHT to show disrespect to @TaimatheHawk. With a top speed of up to 120 miles per hour, he is a SAINT and a formidable adversary. Second, what is it that you find objectionable about pigeons? Do you not realize that they played a DIFFERENTIAL role in our triumph in World War 1? It is more respectful to call someone by the Pigeon name than by their last name,” Griffin said.
In addition, Griffin is not the only former player that Gruden is arguing with; former Washington player Brian Mitchell is also weighing in on the debate, asking, “Are you serious????? Dude, I beg you to simply f-ing vanish completely!!! Mitchell was referred to as a “punt returner” by Gruden, who also instructed him to “be quiet.”
On the other hand, Mitchell responded by adding, “I was significantly better at all of my jobs than you were at any of yours.” You are a living joke. For the second time, Gruden did not back down.
You have been critical of every coach who has ever worked in the District of Columbia. Could you please coach me? A punt return would be a terrible idea.
Gruden was the head coach of the Redskins for a total of six seasons, from 2014 to 2019, during which time the team had a record of 35-49-1. It is anticipated that he will be terminated before the 2020 season, at which point he will be hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars to serve as their offensive coordinator. During that season, they finished with a record of 1-15.
