Robert Griffin III has been in Texas for much of the NFL offseason, rehabilitating his right knee after suffering two season-ending ligament tears. But he got some time off from the trainers yesterday to drop the Texas State Capitol, where Austin legislators showed him the kind of treatment he usually gets from fans of the Washington football team.
Griffin, a native of Copperas Cove, Texas, and a four-year star at Baylor University in Waco, was the subject of resolutions yesterday in both the Texas House and Senate honoring him for being a heck of a football player, a good role model, an “exemplary Texan,” and all the other stuff D.C.-area fans have grown to admire about him. Even though most people in Griffin’s home state cheer for the Washington football team’s most hated rivals, not even the most hardened Cowboys fans in the chamber opposed the measure, Texas Monthly reports:
Perhaps the sole reservation was expressed by Royce West, a Democratic senator from Dallas, who said that his father, a longtime Dallas Cowboys fan, now supports the [Washington football team]. Other legislators, having grappled with the same issue themselves, were apparently resigned to being [Washington football team] fans as long as Griffin is that team’s quarterback. One said that when the Cowboys play the [Washington football team], he roots for both teams, and has to hope that a [Washington football team] player fumbles a catch, so that the Cowboys win but no blame redounds to Griffin.
The resolution was read into the official Texas record without objection.
Other fun facts from the hearing on the Griffin resolution: His former Latin professor at Baylor—yes, Griffin speaks a bit of the dead language—told the Texas Senate that the lowest grade RGIII ever received in his class was a 93. Meanwhile, Baylor President Ken Starr (he of the long-running investigation of President Bill Clinton) said that he would not be surprised if Griffin runs for office some day. For now, though, Griffin is on record saying he’d rather not talk about “race, religion, or politics.”
