The Robert Griffin III era is over in Washington, with the Redskins cutting him after just four years on the roster. There's no debating it was off the rails, but it now appears to be a rollercoaster that went off the rails.
You can probably fill multiple books -- volumes, even -- on the drama surrounding RG3 and fellow 2012 draftee Kirk Cousins, now the franchise quarterback.
That idea was given even more credence by former Redskins tight end Chris Cooley, who looked back on RG3's time in D.C. this week on ESPN 980 (via Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post) and provided some insight into that relationship.
Specifically, the two aren't drinking buddies.
"There’s a working relationship where guys show up and they work. I would drink a beer with Mike Shanahan today; I did not like him as a head coach. I like him as a dude," Cooley said. "That said, I don’t think Kirk Cousins and Robert Griffin are going to be drinking any beers together. One, Robert doesn’t drink, [and] Kirk rarely drinks. But there was never a friendship relationship. From the moment Kirk was drafted, I think Robert had animosity towards him.
"A lot of people in this area hated that fourth-round pick; I don’t think anyone hated it as much as RG3 hated it.”
More specifically: not buddies at all.
"Robert was never willing to be friends with Kirk Cousins,” Cooley said. “They never hung out together, they never spent time together, their families didn’t hang out together. … It was never a great relationship. I don’t think Robert ever wanted it to be a great relationship. And I think it became really contentious over the last two years, to where Rex Grossman, a guy who I’m close with, said ‘This is weird in here. This is a bad situation in here. These guys don’t like each other.'"
Throughout the ups and downs of the Griffin and Cousins saga in D.C. -- Griffin was twice benched for Cousins and injured multiple times too -- there was ample noise around the NFL about Cousins taking the job.
However, the two always maintained a working, public relationship. It's not all on Griffin either -- Shanahan drafting two notable quarterbacks in the 2012 NFL Draft and assuming everything would be peachy wasn't the case. Cooley pointed this out too, for what it's worth.
(Although not drafting Cousins and having Griffin walk with nothing to show for it would be even more devastating.)
Making matters worse, however, is Cooley's assessment of the offensive line's feelings towards Griffin. They "did not like" him.
“The offensive line did not like Robert Griffin,” Cooley said. “A lot of the receivers did not like Robert Griffin. The offensive line had a problem with Robert, because they were considered for a year-and-a-half or two years a terrible offensive line that couldn’t protect a quarterback. A lot of that isn’t true. A lot of that was Robert. A lot of the sacks were put on Robert. Want to believe it or not, they were, okay? Football-wise, they were: it was Robert.
“Robert never took [responsibility] for that. Robert continued to let his offensive line eat the blame. They don’t like it. They hate that, man. That kills them. Perception is the only thing an offensive line has, because 99 percent of people watching football have no idea what an offensive line’s doing."
Oh, and the receivers hated him too!
“Receivers didn’t like playing with Robert, because they didn’t get the ball,” Cooley said. “It was never consistent, other than a couple in 2012; they struggled with that. So they didn’t like Robert. … Robert did have friends, of course he had friends, but there were a lot of guys on this team that said it doesn’t benefit me -- as a player, as an individual -- and we don’t know if it benefits the team with him under center at this point. That was what really happened in that locker room, in talking to a lot of those guys. That’s not me saying I think they would have perceived it this way.
"It’s me talking to a lot of players in this locker room, as friends, and understanding why the dislike or why the problem."
So, yeah. Not a whole lot of people liked Robert Griffin III in Washington. You knew some of this was going to come out following his release from a not-so-functional workplace environment.
