Former NFL star Robert Griffin III demanded that Saturday Night’s Wild Card Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins be postponed due to freezing temps that he claims made the climate unfit for a professional football game. While the game went on without a hitch, RG3 was not thrilled that the teams were being made to play in the extreme weather.
The former first-round draft pick and star of the once-called Washington Redskins is now an ESPN analyst, and he gave his take on the game, which Kansas City officials refused to relocate. In New York, facing a similar situation this weekend with brutal cold seeking to jeopardize player health and safety, the game was moved to a more suitable arena.
According to Fox News, RG3 explained, “When you look at the Chiefs-Dolphins game, it’s like, ‘Nope we’re just gonna play that one.’ Guess what? They have negative 1-degree weather. It’s supposed to be a wind chill up to negative 30 degrees. Oh yeah, and there’s snow. And there’s winds up to 29 mph.”
He went on to explain that the gripe is not one of discomfort for the players but rather a plea for the health and safety of everyone involved in the game, from the star players on each team to the fans in attendance. He said, “You’re trying to tell me that that’s safe? No, no, it’s not safe. Not for the players, not for the fans, not for the coaches, and it’s not football weather.”
RG3 was known in college and his short time in the NFL as being a very well study and genuinely intelligent quarterback outside of football. Because of this, his opinion has become a highly respected one when he is broadcast across the airwaves by ESPN.
He continues, saying, “Guys, football is a brutal sport. It’s the gladiator sport. The toughest people on the face of the planet play football. The saying, ‘Oh, we’ll play them any time, anywhere no matter what the weather is,’ is just a saying. We use that to pump up our guys, our teammates, because listen, if we gotta go play in these conditions, we ‘gon play in them. It is what it is. And we not gon’ complain about it.”
“But if the NFL is really about players’ safety, it’s their job to do what’s in the best interest of the players. Besides, the weather is unsafe. And winter isn’t coming, it’s here! It’s not soft to say that, ‘in these conditions, that they game should be moved.’”
He wasn’t simply complaining. RG3 also has a plan to stop this from happening in the future, starting with making every new stadium in the NFL use a domed roof to allow for games to be played in safe conditions year round. He concluded, “From this point forward, there should never be a stadium in the NFL that is built without a roof. Make them all a dome, and make it safer for the players without all these elements.”
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