Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III fought to be ready for the 2013 season following a torn ACL in 2012 playoffs. It looked like Griffin might have been rushed back and not been ready to return, and the Redskins struggled for wins all season. When it was clear that they weren’t making the playoffs, then-head coach Mike Shanahan made the decision to bench Griffin and finish the season with quarterback Kirk Cousins.
Just don’t tell Griffin that he was benched, he doesn’t see it that way.
“The way I refer to it, and really what happened, is coach brought me in his office and said he was shutting me down for the rest of the year,” Griffin told CSN Washington’s Chick Hernandez. “So a lot of people say I was benched, but I was really shut down.
“Or if you want to have some fun, I was ‘sent to the offseason,'” Griffin continued. “So it’s another unique situation. Never been a part of anything like that, never heard of anything like that in the history of the league.”