Washington Redskins head coach Jay Gruden blasted ESPN reporter Britt McHenry over what she reported about Robert Griffin III prior to Sunday’s game against the Vikings.
During ESPN’s pregame show on Sunday, McHenry reported that several Redskins players did not know Griffin would be starting until it came out in the media. She also said the players were not happy about the decision to start the former Heisman Trophy winner.
The real money shot was this quote from McHenry.
“Griffin has alienated himself from the locker room,” a source told McHenry.
We weren’t completely sure what to make of that quote without any concrete details or examples of what that entailed, so we didn’t put a ton of stock into it. Apparently neither did Gruden.
“I saw those,” the coach said when asked about the pregame reports, via The Washington Post. “It was an amateurish report. It was totally not true. And for anybody who reads that to believe that, they’re an amateur. Anybody who reports that’s an amateur. It’s totally false. And just something else that you have to deal with up here at a press conference, that Robert has to deal with, that the players have to deal with, that they’re going to write about and ask about.
“But we are in D.C., and it is Robert Griffin, and they’re always going to try to tear him down and tear us down for whatever reason,” Gruden continued, per The Post’s Dan Steinberg “But we’re going to stay united as a locker room, and that’s that. We’re not going to let anybody get to us. That’s some small-time reporter reporting fiction.”
Not only did Gruden defend Griffin, but several other reporters said the noise being made while RG3 spoke with the media during the week (something McHenry mentioned during her report) was unrelated to Griffin.
Others defended the situation by saying Griffin is not loved by all his teammates, nor are all quarterbacks or players in a 53-man locker room. Heck, there were even reports that some Seahawks had a problem with Super Bowl-winning QB Russell Wilson.
McHenry has not responded via social media, but she did retweet this seemingly in defense:
@AndrewLiv @BrittMcHenry what did you expect him to say? He's protecting his QB like you are. Move on man.
— Kevin Negandhi (@KNegandhiESPN) November 2, 2014
Griffin went 18/28 for 251 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the 29-26 loss.
