On the day after the Washington Redskins’ season-finale against the Dallas Cowboys, quarterback Robert Griffin III had vacated the locker room by 9 a.m., when it was opened to the media. He left Redskins Park without conducting an end-of-season press conference or going in-depth on his tumultuous third season in Washington.
Griffin finally opened up about those topics Wednesday night during a segment on ESPN 980, the team-owned radio station. In a wide-ranging interview, the quarterback talked about the creation of his new Family of 3 Foundation and the addition of new quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh. He even touched on the condition of footballs, a question prompted by allegations that the New England Patriots deliberately underinflated balls during the AFC Championship game.
“I didn’t even know that the ball had to be a certain way,” Griffin said.
Most notably, Griffin discussed the dislocated ankle he suffered in Week 2 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He indicated that the injury was more bothersome than he let on and hindered him for the entirety of the season.
“I had never suffered an ankle injury of that severity before, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” Griffin said. “It just became more and more tough the more games that we lost, because you know how hard your guys work, and you want to get out there and help them win games.
“I could’ve sat out the rest of last year, with how bad the ankle was, but I felt like I could play, and I wanted to get out there and play with my guys and help them win games. And that didn’t happen when I got back out there. Then coach made a decision [to bench me]. That was an unfortunate decision, and something we all had to go with because that was coach’s choice.”
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Griffin missed six weeks with the ankle injury and returned against the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 2. After three starts, he was benched in favor of Colt McCoy.
When McCoy was injured in the closing moments of a game against the St. Louis Rams, then again in the first quarter of the following game against the New York Giants, Griffin returned to the lineup. He started the remainder of the season.
Griffin is entering the final guaranteed year of his rookie contract. The team has until May 3 to decide whether to exercise the fifth-year option in his deal for 2016 — a deal that could pay him a whopping $16 million for one season.
For now, Griffin said he has been spending the offseason with his family in Texas. He said he “can’t wait” to work with Cavanaugh, the former Chicago Bears quarterbacks coach who was hired by the Redskins on Wednesday. But first and foremost, Griffin said he is simply focused on getting healthy.
“Last year, I wasn’t healthy, and it sucked,” Griffin said. “There’s no other way to say it other than that. When you dislocate your ankle in the second week of the season, when you and your team had big things in mind. So I guess it’s just getting healthy, getting a mental break, getting a chance to spend time with family, and then formulate my plan going forward from this year so we can go out there and win games.”
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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