Robert Griffin III (RGIII) is, in many ways, the same in the booth as he was on the field: quick and full of surprises! jon_wertheim spent a day with the former quarterback in his new role as a commentator on ESPN:
Before the 2011 Alamo Bowl, Griffin’s final college game, he spoke with Quint Kessenich, a reporter for ESPN. Kessenich recalls that Griffin’s magnetism was so obvious and pronounced and endearing that he kept a photo of the occasion. “I don’t hold onto stuff like that,” says Kessenich. “But there was something about him from that moment. … I just became a fan. There’s not that many players that can impact you based on a couple conversations.
Griffin set the football world on fire during his rookie season with Washington before a series of injuries derailed his career.By 2017, Griffin was out of football. He stayed in shape working out with his girlfriend, now wife, Grete—a former Florida State heptathlete—at the University of Miami track. After a series of 400-meter hurdles, Griffin says he collapsed on the ground in full body cramps.
In the booth, ESPN paired Griffin with play-by-play man Mark Jones, a benign, upbeat presence who discharges his broadcast duties with an easygoing professionalism and a ready laugh. Jones is best known for his NBA work and, at age 60, he isn’t exactly gunning for promotions. Off camera, the two bond over their love of track and field, the benefits of being Florida residents and their mutual fondness for all sports.
He has his team get their assignments on Sunday. He spends three days watching film, reading a research packet, learning the personnel for East Carolina or the blitzing schemes for Colorado State. On Thursday, he travels—commercial, sometimes coach class—to games. On Fridays, he’s on campus, meeting with players and coaches, picking up factoids and teams’ overall vibes, such as Cincinnati never truly recovering from its Week 1 loss to Arkansas, which squelched its national title ambitions.
Griffin has been struck by how much of the football experience—the flavor, the pageantry—eludes the players, himself included. Griffin points out that, until last season, he had always entered the stadium by private bus, headed to the locker and field, locked in on the game, and paid no attention to the tailgate scenes and the fight songs. “[As a player] you never get to see it from the fans’ perspective. The Spirit Splash? I guarantee, that’s something no player at UCF is ever going to be in.
He knows the topic of his sexual references is coming—anticipating the blitz, as it were—and pre-empts the question. “It’s something on the spot. If anybody's noticed, the last three or four weeks, there haven't been any of those [sexual references]. And the reason is, it’s not what I plan to do; it’s not something calculated. I didn’t scour down Michigan’s depth chart and say, ‘Ooh, their third-string quarterback’s named Orji!’ ... But, Oklahoma has a quarterback named General Booty.
In the second quarter, UCF quarterback John Rhys Plumlee collided violently with the Cincinnati defender, rose haltingly, stumbled on the field and was then taken out of the game with a concussion. Choosing his words carefully, Griffin resisted two broadcaster impulses, neither minimizing the trauma nor speculating about the severity of the hit in the injury.
Which is not to say that it was a flawless day. When Cincinnati defensive lineman Noah Potter jumped offsides, Griffin dad-joked, “Potter was a little too excited to get to Gryffindor,” a clunker that got no laugh out of Mark Jones. At one point, Griffin started a story about his team meeting with Cincinnati’s coordinators. But he took too long with the wind-up and had to wait for a play to elapse before concluding it awkwardly.
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