The Washington Redskins' lost season has taken so many depressing twists and turns it's hard to keep them straight.
An expansive report from The Washington Post's Liz Clarke and Mike Jones details the Redskins' wayward season, Jay Gruden's first-year mistakes and Robert Griffin III's struggles with the new coaching staff and his own teammates.
RGIII's problems have been pervasive this season both on and off the field. Gruden made headlines when he publicly critiqued his quarterback earlier this season.
However, the coach first dressed down the signal caller in private, per The Post, during a closed-door meeting the day after a preseason loss to the Baltimore Ravens in which Griffin completed just five passes, was sacked three times and threw an interception. One issue was Griffin taking bad sacks.
"That's never going to happen again -- my quarterback taking a six-yard loss when he could throw it away," Gruden said, in front of a room of RGIII's peers.
"Yes, sir," replied Griffin.
It did happen, however. Often.
Critiquing Griffin in private didn't seem to work, so Gruden took it public -- for better or worse.
Griffin's on-field play became so poor that at one point early in the season some offensive players grumbled about how the quarterback could cost them future big-money contracts.
"Man, this guy's going to wind up taking food off our tables," one unnamed receiver worried, per The Post.
The on-field troubles coupled with a perception that RGIII was egocentric and consistently tried to grab the spotlight brushed some players the wrong way.
"As players, you get tired if everything about what we do as a team is directed at one person," receiver Santana Moss told The Post, noting that he personally doesn't begrudge Griffin any attention but understands why many young players might. "When you keep giving all that attention to one person and you have 50-some other guys out here playing, as players, they get to feel some type of way. That's only being human."
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