The hits keep coming from all quarters for embattled Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III.
Stories citing unnamed sources questioning Griffin’s ability and work ethic have become so commonplace that even TMZ has jumped into the mix, with a story quoting an unnamed player on the team ripping into Griffin.
“No one is happy . . . no one gets the hype around him anymore. . . . I don’t see him being in the NFL for that long. . . . I think he goes into politics. He’s good at that kinda thing,” the player tells TMZ.
It’s surprising to see TMZ report on this kind of story because when TMZ covers the NFL, it’s usually breaking stories about players’ lives away from the game, be it in the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson legal cases or stories about players’ personal lives. It’s unusual to see TMZ report on a player’s popularity within his own locker room.
As Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post notes, however, one particular Washington player seems to have a relationship with TMZ: DeSean Jackson, who talks to TMZ about everything from his side business breeding dogs to how much money he spends on jewelry.
The TMZ headline also refers to the unnamed player bad-mouthing Griffin as a “star.” There aren’t many stars on the roster in Washington (some would say there aren’t any stars on the roster in Washington), but Jackson is about the closest thing the team has to a star. And one TMZ quote in particular, in which the unnamed teammate says he’s frustrated with Griffin because “We don’t have that real rapport,” sounds like the kind of thing a receiver would say about a quarterback. Jackson’s stats this season have been better when Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy are throwing to him than when Griffin is throwing to him.
We don’t know and may never know who the player talking to TMZ about Griffin is, but just as Steve Young’s criticisms of Griffin seemed to be coming from Mike Shanahan, it doesn’t require a huge leap to infer that TMZ’s criticisms of Griffin may be coming from Jackson.
In any event, this surely won’t be the last time we see a story in which unnamed sources in Washington bad-mouth Griffin. It’s open season on RG3.
