Back in May, former Eagles/Redskins QB and current NFL Network analyst Donovan McNabb told the Washington Post that RGIII was doing “too much right now.” McNabb asked to sit down with RG’s II & III but was denied. Apparently McNabb wanted to bequeath his wisdom on how a starting, high-profile, quarterback should conduct himself.
Featured in September’s issue of GQ, RGIII says, “I don’t think Donovan is an idiot by any means,” he told me. “But right now, it’s probably best we don’t talk.”
Ouch. McNabb is trying to establish his career in media with Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports Radio, but at least RGIII doesn't think he's an idiot! In his interview with the Post, McNabb gets a tad self-righteous in his advice:
“It’s too much right now; it’s just too much,” McNabb said, speaking from his home in Arizona. “I get some of things he’s doing to draw attention to himself: the Adidas commercials, going out and enjoying the life of a young, famous NFL quarterback. I understand RG has a lot of stuff going on.
“But if you’re coming off ACL surgery, you don’t need to be having a press conference at OTAs. Every week? Really? It becomes a circus, a sideshow. It takes away from the focus of what those sessions are supposed to be about: the team.”
“One thing Andy Reid did is he never let the injured guys become the story if they were off to the side at practice,” McNabb added, referring to the former Eagles coach. “He thought it took away from the guys who were grinding and practicing every day.”
We really can’t blame RGIII for not wanting to talk to McNabb. Sure, he had an overall successful career, but all of his comments come off as a tad condescending. That said, he's an analyst now so he's certainly entitled to his opinion. It is a weird dynamic though.
Griffin also touched briefly on Rob Parker's comments earlier in the year that caused him to lose his job at ESPN after the "cornball brother" fiasco on First Take:
“There’s something wrong with what he said, but there’s something wrong in him losing his job as well. And I don’t want people to think that I, you know, that I’m trying to stick it to Rob Parker, or that I’m happy he lost his job. But I was very unhappy with the things he said. I mean, why did he say that?”
That's a question we're all still asking.
[GQ]
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