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