RG3: Is He Back?

RG3:  Is He Back?
Zane West-Derby
9-26-13  12:50 pm

OWENSVILLE, MO-Everybody is wondering, if Robert Griffin 3 will be back to normal after he tore his ACL.

Dr. James Andrews, a highly respected doctor, had to repair Griffin’s ACL after he had fell awkwardly on his knee on January 6th, 2013.

On January 9th, 2013 Andrews performed knee reconstruction surgery. At first Andrews thought he had just a slight tear in his ACL and LCL ,however, that was not the case. He had a full tear in his ACL and LCL. Once the surgery was done he asked for the dates of the first day of training camp and the season opener. His dad told him those dates and Griffin put the date of the opener as his password to his phone.

In February, Andrews said that Griffin should be back for the start of the season. After that, Adidas started running a promotional video and Griffin had said he was “all in” for the beginning of the season.

In March, Griffin texted ESPN’s Trey Wingo, “My knee is getting better every day. The doctors say I'm ahead of schedule. My goal is to return healthy in week one but if I'm not ready then I will wait until I am, however long that is. My first NFL season and my injury that ended it showed me a lot about the league, my team, and myself. I know where my responsibility is within the dilemma that led to me having surgery to repair my knee and all parties involved know their responsibilities as well. I’m looking forward to playing the game we all love so much again and not behind at the negative. thanks for the overwhelming level of support that I've received, sic’em Bears and hail to the Redskins!!”.

When May came around, there were pictures of Griffin throwing.

In July, Griffin married the love of his life and started full practices.

August 7th Griffin started ramping up drills and started 11-on-11 drills. Griffin did not play a single preseason game, but wanted to play in the regular season.The rest of August Griffin was waiting for an approval from Andrews to play in the first game.

On September 2nd, Griffin finally received the news he was wanting for a long time: Andrews cleared him to play the first game and Coach Shannahan named Griffin the starter for week 1 against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Griffin’s return did not start off well at all. On the first play he handed the ball off to Alfred Morris and Morris fumbled the ball letting the Eagles recovered. On his second possession he threw his first pass that was complete, but was taken back because of an illegal shift. His second throw was an interception. The third possession ended up with a safety because of a bad shovel pass to Morris. The quarter had ended after that and Philadelphia tied the record for most plays in the 1st quarter (30).

In the second quarter, and Griffin’s fourth possession, he almost threw an interception (defender dropped the pass) and it ended with a punt. The fifth possession ended with a punt, and Griffin looked terrible as he was throwing off his back foot the whole time. The sixth possession ended with yet another punt in which he was hit very hard two times and was slow to get up. In the seventh possession, the Redskins got nowhere because of two false starts and that ended the half.

To start the half the Redskins had a good drive going until a sloppy pass ending the eighth possession with an interception. Ninth possession Griffin had his first run of the year for 8 yards. It was the first time they passed the 50 yard line and get into the redzone, but ended with a missed field goal. Tenth possession Griffin still looked bad but Morris took them down the field for a touchdown. That ended the third quarter.

Eleventh possession Griffin actually looked good and ended with a touchdown pass. Twelfth possession Griffin started to get on a roll but, could not convert on fourth down. To end the game and the thirteenth possession Griffin threw for a long touchdown pass

Although Griffin is a freak of nature and is able to play to the level he is at in just 8 months he is going to need a couple more months to get back to the standards he was at last year. Griffin is not back yet, but about half way through the season he should be back to normal.