RG3 says a dumb thing
I covered this story for Uproxx when it happened. Rg3 said he still thinks he’s the best QB in the league. I felt and still feel a touch of guilt mocking him for it because I got a look at the context and it’s definitely not nearly as bad as the media made it out to be. This was certainly a big case of the media taking a quote out of context and turning that quote into the story. In context his quote isn’t quite so bad. It’s still pretty overconfident and slightly arrogant, but it’s not unreasonably so. Honestly I get what he was trying to say, but he’s bad with words and he had any number of ways he could have said it, but he chose this particular route. Here is the whole quote:
“I don’t feel like I have to come out here and show anybody anything or why I’m better than this guy or better than that guy. It’s more about going out and affirming that for me, I go out and I play, I know I’m the best quarterback on this team. I feel like I’m the best quarterback in the league and I have to go out and show that,”
“Any athlete at any level, if they concede to someone else, they’re not a top competitor, they’re not trying to be the best that they can be. There’s guys in this league that have done way more than me. But, I still view myself as the best because that’s what I work toward every single day.”
It’s bad and it’s not. On one hand, it seems like he’s using his confidence as a motivational tool, not unlike how most players would do something similar to self motivate. He thinks he’s the best, and what motivates him to get out there is showing that he’s the best and re-affirming his mentality. He thinks if you view yourself as inferior, it makes you inferior, because you’ve lost that mental edge. It’s his way of motivating himself. That’s not a crime and I doubt he’s the only player who sees himself that way. (Cough Cough Deion Sanders.)
At the same time, lol RG3 you couldn’t have figured out a way to word that better, in a way that doesn’t make you sound like an overconfident douche? At least when Eli and Flacco got in hot water for tooting their own horn too much, it happened after a reporter successfully baited them. This was a bit overdoing it and he said it pretty un-baited. RG3 has always had a big ego, in that way he might legit be the best QB in the league.
Anyway at this point I just kind of pity him. As egotistical as he can be, he really was a good QB who got used as a pawn between a jerk coach and a even jerkier owner, and now he’s irreparably broken beyond repair and what Skins fans once saw as a decade of relevance ahead of them has turned into mush and disappointment, again. I don’t even know if Skins fans still like him, or if he just represents another mistake for the franchise to them, which might have explained the Kirk Cousins love last season before Kirk Cousins flopped. If I was a Skins fan I’d probably wish him the best, expect the worst, and desire to move on instead of waiting for him to possibly be good again.
RG3 is going to be one of those players you look back on in ten years and wonder what could’ve been. If Shanatan had been smart and kept him out until he healed, or invested in the offensive line to protect him and keep him healthy, then he could’ve been a dominant force in the league that changed the landscape of the NFC. Instead, he’s in all likelihood going to end up the Leaf to Luck’s Peyton. Definitely going to have an interesting Football Life/30 For 30 made about his career at some point.
It’s sad really, but I think it’s time to abandon the RG3 project. I loved him his rookie year even though I’m not a Skins fan, and I’ve wanted to see him revive himself, but it’s just been painful ever since then. It’s like watching a boxer fighting Mike Tyson with no chance of winning keep getting back up to fight, only to get his lights knocked out again. Stay down Rock, stay down.
I enjoyed the Snyder-head logos.
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Edit: okay comments are working again everybody, wordpress fuckup fixed
I do not see anything bad in anything RG3 said. I wish Tannehill would show this kind of competitive fire for once.
Tannehill seems like one of those guys from the Neutral planet in Futurama. “I have no strong feeling one way or the other.”
That’s the entire dolphins team after they’ve been there for a whole 3 weeks.
Up until that last game, I was holding out a bit of hope that the Bills might get him. RGIII from two years ago might be game breaking with Greg Roman as OC and the skill players the Bills have now. But man, he has taken beating after beating and it’s not entirely his fault but it certainly looks to have taken its toll.
As I’ve said it once and I’ll say again: Jay Gruden hates scramblers. He was a pocket passer for the Tampa Bay Storm in the early 90’s and he coached the Orlando Predators from 1998-2001 and 2004-2008 with pocket passers only, even going to the point where he suited up himself in between his tenures as coach in Orlando. His stubbornness actually worked for him in the Arena League because he won 2 Arena Bowl titles (1998 and 2000). Even in Cincinnati he tried to force the red rifle to stay in the pocket at all costs.
That’s what annoys me about Gruden coaching in Washington; he tried to make with an offense that had a QB beyond his liking. I guess he set his expectations too high and he isn’t helping RG3 show he’s the “best QB in the league either”, and neither is his o-line.
I’m still not entirely convinced he even wants RG3 as the starter but Snyder forced it on him. Apparently it happened with Shanahan too which is why Shanahan and Snyder started hating each other.
Last year it came out how privileged RG3 was compared to the other players, his family could attend practice while others could not, and Gruden stripped that all away from him. I don’t think Gruden likes RG3, I think Snyder is the problem. Which could be considered true for everything.
We can all agree that Snyder is the worst owner in the nfl.
Hard to agree with that. Dean Spanos exists.
Jay Gruden is simply out small fish used to the pond of the Arena League that wandered into the ocean that is the nfl.
As a Giants fan – a huge bullet dodged by Synder not knowing how to handle this guy. He could have been a huge threat for years, but he’s effectively neutered. Unless he grows up a lot very fast, he’ll never be what he could have been.