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OSU, Rams got physical with RGIII. Now ball is in his court.
Published: 9/21/2012 4:19 PM
Last Modified: 9/21/2012 4:19 PM

The way Robert Griffin III played (brilliantly) for Baylor last season, it seemed like he had taken an evolutionary step for quarterbacks.

Now it's time to evolve again.

RGIII, two games into his career as a Washington Redskins quarterback, accused his most recent opponent -- the St. Louis Rams -- of dirty and unprofessional tactics. He alleged that the Rams got in a few extra shots on him during the course of a game.

Thought No. 1: Mobile quarterbacks never seem to catch a break from refs, replacement or otherwise. Give a love tap to a pocket quarterback like Tom Brady and a 15-yard penalty is almost guaranteed. But let a runaround quarterback like Griffin or Michael Vick or Big Ben get smacked by a defender and the guys in black-and-white striped shirts are less likely to reach for a yellow flag.

Thought No. 2: There's a scouting report on everyone. And the Rams had one on Griffin. And it's not a new one. Oklahoma State built a 49-3 third-quarter lead against Baylor last season and the defensive plan seemed to be something like this: Get ahead of the Bears and be physical with Griffin and let's see how he responds. "That's exactly what we did," a Cowboy defender confirmed.

Griffin answered the bell enough times last season to win a Heisman Trophy. He's a great player, period. But he didn't answer the bell against OSU. And NFL defenders are going to check Griffin's oil just like the Cowboys did.

Dirty pool? Nope. It happens all the time. I remember watching a Bill Self basketball practice at the University of Tulsa when the Golden Hurricane was preparing for a home game against TCU. The scouting report on TCU was that one of the Horned Frogs' better players disliked contact. So the TU coaches instructed their to bump the guy every time he entered the paint and guess what? The dude didn't react very well and Tulsa won the game.

I have no doubt Griffin will continue to be tested physically and I have no doubt he will evolve into a quarterback who can shrug off the extracurricular stuff and make defenders pay. But the ball is absolutely in his court.


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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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