The feud between Robert Griffin III and Jay Gruden took a new turn Thursday night when the former NFL quarterback berated the former Washington football coach over an incident that occurred while in the nation's capital.
Griffin told the story about Gruden on his podcast, shared the clip on social media, and Gruden responded.
“There was a moment that happened in Washington, D.C. that I still remember vividly,” Griffin begins in the clip. “Jay Gruden went to a press conference and in that press conference he made me take off my clothes in a way that a coach shouldn't take off his clothes as a starting quarterback. It was after the game, so I said in the press conference, “I'm not going to be the best in the NFL. “The best players make the players around them play at a very high level.” No one is doing it on their own. ”
“Now media professionals and everyone is taking it and saying RGIII threw his teammates under the bus. He even emphasized it and actually featured me in the media.”
At the time, Griffin said there was more to the story and that Gruden had made him a scapegoat.
“What people don't know is that the only reason I went to that press conference and said things throughout that press conference that challenged my teammates was because Jay Gruden asked me to do it.” said Griffin.
“What hurt me about it, after I did something like that in a press conference, was that not only did Jay Gruden not have my back, but he actually burned me with it the next day. . In fact, the next day he came out and burned me in the media. The next day he came out in our team conference room and burned me in front of my teammates.”
The former quarterback later stood up and apologized for his comments during a team meeting, but said what Gruden did will always haunt him.
“It's the fact that he has zero self-awareness and zero integrity, because even if he asked me to do something, he didn't have the guts to have my back.” Griffin concluded.
Gruden, who is active on social media, responded to the video after it was posted.
The former coach simply replied, “Are you sure you want to play this game?”
He then posted on X, “Going to race the pigeons,” along with a clip of Griffin racing the birds.
Gruden and Griffin already had an exchange on social media earlier this week, with Gruden going so far as to attack Griffin in a post to X that he allegedly deleted early Thursday morning.
“You weren't good enough” he allegedly wrote in a now-deleted post. “Kirk was better. Cleveland didn't want you. Baltimore [didn’t] which one. Please stop blaming me. ”
Griffin played for Gruden in 2014, but he dislocated his ankle early in the season and ended up benching Kirk Cousins.
