Santana Moss had a front row seat to all of the drama that unfolded with the Washington Redskins involving Mike Shanahan and Robert Griffin III several years ago, and the former wide receiver recently hinted that he believes the way RG3 handled himself is part of the reason he remains a free agent.
In an interview with Chad Dukes of 106.7 The Fan, Moss said he felt Shanahan was “robbed of having more years” to coach in Washington. He recalled how Shanahan and Griffin could not see eye-to-eye, and the franchise eventually chose the quarterback over the coach.
“Before you know it, RG’s not playing (after Shanahan benched him for the final three games of 2013),” Moss explained, as transcribed by Chris Lingebach of CBS Washington. “I’m not sure if that was his whole plan, but when the whole thing went about, we hear that Mike Shanahan’s not coming back the next year, then we hear the quarterback like, ‘Hey. Mm hmm.’ … Like, basically saying that you got me out of here not playing last year, the last few games, then that’s what happens. You get fired.
“You can’t do that,” Moss said. “One thing I’ll just share with you: God don’t like ugly. So the little credit that (Griffin) did take for saying that, ‘Hey, they didn’t like what I was doing,’ or ‘they benched me and not allowing me to play,’ that’s what happens.”
Essentially, Moss was saying that Griffin danced on Shanahan’s grave. He believes word got around about that, and he hinted that it was one of the reasons Jay Gruden was so hard on RG3 when Gruden was hired by the Redskins.
“So 2014 comes, and Jay Gruden comes in, and he don’t care,” Moss added. “We see that now. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care what he says about you, he doesn’t care what he says at you. And he rips RG every chance he gets, like every meeting, and we’re sitting there looking like, ‘Yeah. You know what? You were just so happy that Mike and Kyle and them is gone, but now you’re getting your behind ripped every day, because you’re not playing the kind of football that we need to play for us to be successful.’
“I was saying to myself that, as much as I love you as a person, bro, as much as I know from how you came into these doors, that was the dumbest mistake you could ever make in this league. Because it’s one of those brotherhoods.”
None of what Moss said is really a shock. When Griffin told reporters after a loss in 2013 that the Redskins were “outcoached,” Moss came down hard on RG3. We also heard reports that Griffin bragged about the influence he had over Washington owner Dan Snyder.
Does all of that have anything to do with why Griffin doesn’t have a job? At the very least, it probably doesn’t help.
