NFL Wild Card Weekend has come and gone. Packing and heading to their respective offseason homes are the Vikings, Bengals, Indianapolis and Washington.
Washington’s Robert Griffin III, fondly known as RG III, will not enjoy this offseason. In fact, Griffin may well be concerned about his future in the game after sustaining a serious injury to his right knee in his team’s 24-14 Wild Card loss to Seattle. The injury, after an MRI, was diagnosed as a partial tear of his lateral collateral ligament). Griffin tore his ACL back in 2009 when he was tearing it up at Baylor University. It is the same knee he injured back in December against Baltimore.
Wearing a huge brace on his right knee, Griffin took a shot to that knee when he tried to snatch an errant snap from his center. He managed to limp off the field. This time, he didn’t return. The debate began as to whether he should have played. But he insisted on playing after taking an early second-quarter hit after he had led Washington to a 24-3 lead. The same knee had buckled in the first quarter.
Washington’s coach, Mike Shanahan, took a lot of heat over letting him play. But it was Griffin who insisted on continuing to play. RG III said, “If you can play, you play. I admit to putting myself at more risk being out there.”
Griffin is now in Florida with the legendary Dr. James Andrews, where he has undergone testing and examinations. On Wednesday morning, he had surgery to repair the knee.
The other big news coming out of Wild Card Weekend was the return of Ray Lewis to the field of action, where he led Baltimore to an inspiring 24-9 Wild Card Weekend win over the Indianapolis Colts at the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
Lewis, who better be a first-time Hall of Fame inductee, had not suited up for action over the past 10 games and had his right arm protected with a brace. And still, he played. Fired up, he had 13 tackles (game high) and took a final victory lap as over 70,000 boisterous fans screamed his name.