The argument between former Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III and his one-time coach, Jay Gruden, rose to a fever pitch this week when the two went head-to-head on social media, with Gruden concluding that Griffin just wasn’t “good enough” on the field.
Indeed, Gruden went even further and said that Kirk Cousins, who replaced Griffin on the team, “was better” than Griffin, Fox News reported.
Gruden also reportedly added, “Cleveland didn’t want you. Baltimore [didn’t] either. Quit blaming me.” The post was since deleted.
The latest spat was kicked off when Gruden was disgusted by the Philadelphia Eagles’ inability to “pick up a blitz” and noted, “If I ever put a QB through what Philly is putting Jalen through, I apologize.”
This social media quip sent Griffin to reply, “Whatttt???” in a hint that Gruden did the same things to Griffin with Washington.
The two then engaged in a back-and-forth, blasting each other.
Gruden wrote, “U weren’t prepared, Robert?” to which Griffin responded, “You told me you didn’t know how to coach a QB who could throw and run like me, so it looks like you weren’t prepared, Jay.”
Then Griffin spoke to the feud on his RG3 and The Ones podcast, where he accused Gruden of “undressing” him at a press conference the way no coach should do in public.
“If Jay Gruden really wants to talk, I’m not going to cuss the man out, I’m not going to call him outside of his name. But what I am going to do is tell you guys the truth,” Griffin told his listeners. “And the truth of the matter is, there was a moment in D.C. that is vividly remembered. Jay Gruden went to a press conference, and he undressed me at that press conference in a way that a coach should never undress his starting quarterback.”
Griffin added that when he appeared to diss his own team members in a press conference in 2014, he did that because Gruden told him to. The Gruden “doubled down on it, and actually picked me apart in the media,” Griffin said.
Griffin went on:
But 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. What hurt me about that was 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 he burned me in front of my own teammates.
[I] took accountability for what I said. It was taken out of context and apologized to my teammates in front of that team meeting. Now, Jay, knowing that he had asked me to do that and still went to the media and tore me down in the media, even in that room it’s the fact that he has zero self-awareness and zero integrity. Because even though he asked me to do something, he didn’t have the balls to have my back.
Once Griffin posted this clip to his X account, Gruden responded, “You really wanna play this game?” And Griffin replied, “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.”
Gruden also posted a video of the time Griffin raced a hawk, and Gruden added the caption, “Go race a pigeon.”
Griffin last played in the NFL in 2020, and in 2021, he claimed he was still open to returning to the game but has not been able to find a way back in.
Gruden was a coach for the Redskins from 2014 to 2019 but was fired for the 2020 season. He then spent one season as the Jacksonville Jaguars’ offensive coordinator and another with the L.A. Rams. He is currently not employed by an NFL team. Gruden also played several seasons in the 1990s and early 2000s as a quarterback in the Arena Football League.
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