At this point, it’s clear that there’s no love lost between Robert Griffin III and Jay Gruden.
More than eight years after RGIII last played in a regular-season game under Gruden with the Washington Redskins, the 2012 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year engaged in a feud with his former head coach following a comment he made on social media regarding the Philadelphia Eagles’ use of quarterback Jalen Hurts.
As it turns out, the war of words didn’t stop there.
On the latest episode of his RG3 And the Ones podcast, Griffin addressed his issues with Gruden, who he played for during the 2015 season in Washington. In doing so, the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner claimed that the head coach had directed him to make comments about his teammates in a postgame press conference, only to throw him under the bus for doing just that.
“What people don’t know is the only reason I went to that press conference and said what I said to challenge my teammates through that press conference was because Jay Gruden asked me to do that,” Griffin said. “What hurt me about that was the fact that after I did that in the press conference, not only did Jay Gruden not have my back, but he actually burned me with it. He came out the next day and burned me in the media. He came out the next day in a meeting in our team meeting room and burned me in front of my own teammates.”
https://twitter.com/RGIII/status/1748163683031638410
After a clip of Griffin’s podcast was posted to X (formerly Twitter) tagging Gruden, the former head coach replied, “You really wanna play this game?” Griffin, who now works as an NFL and college football analyst at ESPN, responded: “I’m not playing any games, I’m retired. You have a free invite to come on the show and discuss. Face to face. I know where all your bodies are buried Jay. Don’t play with me.”
In a since-deleted post, Gruden told Griffin, “You weren’t good enough. Kirk [Cousins] was better. Cleveland didn’t want you. Baltimore didn’t either. Quit blaming me.” The 56-year-old, however, didn’t delete a separate post in which he encouraged his former quarterback to “race a pigeon.”
Either time doesn’t actually heal all wounds, or enough time hasn’t passed since Griffin and Gruden’s time together in Washington for them to put their bad blood behind them. While it’s somewhat curious to see an ESPN analyst feuding so publicly with his former head coach, it’s also worth noting that all of this was reignited by Gruden’s less-than-self aware comment about the Eagles’ inability to protect Hurts on Monday.
Perhaps Gruden will take Griffin up on his offer to join his podcast. More than likely, however, this feud will remain exclusive to social media.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.