Bell: Robert Griffin III quickly gets cold dose of NFL reality

Robert Griffin III and the Redskins must hope he won't be sidelined into the 2013 season. (Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)

Story Highlights
  • This may not be first time Mike Shanahan put team ahead of a player's health in postseason
  • Dan Snyder and his shoddy field may deserve some chunk of blame for rookie's injury
  • Yet Griffin himself must learn to protect himself in an unforgiving environment

    Robert Griffin III had another knee operation Wednesday, and the "stats" underscore the challenge confronting a quarterback positioned as one of the NFL's brightest stars: Four years. One Heisman. One Pro Bowl selection. Two reconstructive ACL surgeries.

    At this rate, RGIII will be forced to become a pocket passer — or else.

    Griffin had the surgery performed by Orthopedic MVP James Andrews in Pensacola, Fla., and it included repair of the LCL that was sprained a month ago. While specifics about the timetable for Griffin's recovery are unclear, the circumstances that led to this are crystallized.

    The kid was undone by myriad forces, including himself. That's the takeaway.

    SURGERY: Griffin needs work on ACL, LCL

    KARMA: Did it play a part in injury?

    SYMPATHY: Tom Brady feels for RGIII

    Let's start with Redskins coach Mike Shanahan, who left the ultimate decision for Griffin to remain in Sunday's playoff loss to the ultra-competitive, 22-year-old phenom. Shanahan told NFL Network's Andrea Kremer this week that anyone who contends that he would risk the franchise's future by playing Griffin is an idiot.

    That's some helluva spin for Shanahan, whose powerful deal with team owner Dan Snyder gives him authority over all football decisions. Of course Shanahan wouldn't risk having RGIII go through another surgery and grueling rehab if he saw this coming.

    He's not stupid. Yet it's apparent that in the heat of the moment on Sunday — with his star player hobbling to such a degree that even the village idiot could see that something was wrong after Griffin landed awkwardly late in the first quarter — advancing in the playoffs was the driving force. Hey, they are paid for victories in the win-or-else NFL.

    Shanahan is human, fallible and flawed like the rest of us. He can make mistakes. His success hinges on others, as much as it does on his shrewd X's and O's.

    My sense is that Shanahan pushed the envelope with Griffin, hoping they'd survive with a victory and that the quarterback's knee would hold up. He gambled and he lost.

    How could he?

    Well, think back to one of most glorious moments of Shanahan's career. During the second quarter of Super Bowl XXXII in 1998, Shanahan sent running back Terrell Davis into the game for a goal-line play. Davis was suffering from migraine headaches and had blurred vision. Shanahan put Davis in the game as a decoy, to sell John Elway's play-action fake. It worked. Elway ran around the end for a 1-yard TD. Afterward, Davis — whose condition improved with medication to the point that he was the game's MVP — admitted that he was afraid Elway would call an audible and hand him the football while he struggled to see straight. In that crucial sequence, Shanahan gambled and won.

    We can imagine how that would play today, with protocol established for head injuries and concussions. But there's at least one high-profile precedent where Shanahan rolled the dice with a player's health.

    When I asked Shanahan a couple of weeks ago at Redskins Park, before the showdown against the Dallas Cowboys, whether he worried about the risk of re-injury, here's what he said: "The LCL is going to take some time. We all know that. Is it a month? Is it a month and a half? You never know if it's completely healed. ... The doctors say he's 100%.

    "We don't have to worry about him reinjuring that LCL. The brace helps him, at least mentally, knowing that he's not putting too much pressure on it. Sometimes, that's why he looks a little different when he does cut. It bothers him just a hair. But it's something he has to wear. Hopefully, it gets better and better."

    If Shanahan was truthful that doctors declared him "100%," then it's clear that they failed him, too. And wasn't the brace supposed to prevent the grotesque hyper-extension of the knee that we saw when it buckled on that sloppy field on Sunday?

    Andrews has been changing his version of the events of Dec. 9 — when Griffin suffered the Grade 1 sprained lateral collateral ligament — and whether he cleared the quarterback to return against the Baltimore Ravens after missing one play. That's disturbing.

    Last weekend, Andrews told Robert Klemko of USA TODAY Sports: "(Griffin) didn't even let us look at him. He came off the field, walked through the sidelines, circled back through the players and took off back to the field. It wasn't our opinion. We didn't even get to touch him or talk to him. Scared the hell out of me."

    In recent days, with the heat intensified, Shanahan and Andrews have maintained that the doctor gave the "hi sign" to indicate Griffin was healthy enough to return to the Dec. 9 game.

    And that still doesn't account for Andrews telling USA TODAY Sports before Griffin suffered his setback on Sunday that he was "scared to death" that the quarterback was continuing to play with the brace.

    If my doctor is "scared to death," that is not a confidence-builder. And if the doctor is "scared to death," you would hope that he would stand on a table, if need be, to declare that he doesn't medically clear the player. In this case, a more conservative approach seems plausible when considering that a Grade 1 sprain can typically take as long as a month to heal, with the muscles surrounding the knee also needing to be re-strengthened.

    Now the NFL Players Association is investigating the Redskins' handling of Griffin's return, pursuant to Article 50 of the collective bargaining agreement.

    Who else failed Griffin? Take a bow, Dan Snyder.

    The Redskins' reclusive owner undoubtedly wants the face of his franchise — who was obtained after Washington traded a bundle of high draft picks to the St. Louis Rams for the right to select him second overall — to be healthy. It's in his best interest, too.

    Yet the shoddy playing surface at FedEx Field could not have helped. The Seattle Seahawks lost a key player to a blown-out ACL, too, defensive end Chris Clemons.

    Seahawks coach Pete Carroll ripped the field conditions and rightfully so. Snyder has invested millions into the stadium — with its plush club lounges and luxury boxes — but apparently lacks the common sense to be certain that his players are working on a top-notch playing surface. This is a tough lesson to learn about that, but perhaps it is a takeaway that will prevent some other disaster.

    Maybe Griffin's knee was so vulnerable that he would have been injured had Sunday's game taken place on the lush greens of Augusta National. And hey, it's pro football. People always get hurt. But given what happened to RGIII, this is a legitimate question for Snyder.

    Shanahan said this week that he expects the field will be addressed. When Griffin was asked about the field on Sunday, he jokingly grumbled about it as part of the Redskins' "home-field advantage."

    Griffin is so refreshing, carrying himself with such class and an upbeat demeanor that it's difficult to not root for the kid — even if you have no use for the franchise that carries a nickname that demeans Native Americans. This is the last kid you'd want this to happen to. Positive support will not be lacking as Griffin attacks his comeback.

    We know he'll be a workout warrior. We already know that he's the passionate type you'll have to drag off the field. When he tore the ACL at Baylor, during the first drive of a blowout against Northwestern State (La.), he finished the first half. After his Dec. 9 injury, he declared himself healed enough to play the following week against the Cleveland Browns, but the doctors and Shanahan sat him for that single game. No one can dare question his heart, like so many unfairly slammed Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler when a knee injury knocked him out of the 2010 NFC title game.

    Griffin went down on Sunday, going for the gusto.

    Yet this experience has to serve as a reality check for RGIII, too.

    He has to protect himself in the big, cold world of the business of the NFL, because unwittingly or not, the judgments of others may not always work in his best interests.

    No one can protect him like he can protect himself.

    That was a proud man declaring the other night that, even as he was injured, he gave the Redskins their best chance to win. Well, maybe not. Not when he's not himself.

    I swear that I hope RGIII has a long, successful career. After witnessing Adrian Peterson's remarkable comeback and realizing medical advances, maybe RGIII comes back better than he's ever been. He's already licked the comeback thing once.

    But superstar or not, there are no guarantees of longevity in the NFL — which still can often be an acronym blaring Not For Long.