Football players take a lot of hits and are used to physical play each Sunday, but what happens when it goes too far?
That's what rookie sensation Robert Griffin III says happened to him in Sunday's game against the St. Louis Rams, where the Washington Redskins lost 31-28.
"I remember one play," the Redskins quarterback told the Associated Press. "After the play, the guy said: 'We're going to hit you every play.' I said: 'Isn't this football?' It's nothing that I'm not used to. It was extremely weird the way they went about it, though."
Many players on the Redskins felt the referees lost control of the game and echoes the sentiment of other coaches around the league.
"You have to have people take control," coach Mike Shanahan said. "And there wasn't any control in that game. Hopefully officials next week will take control. That's what you have to do as an official."
After the New Orleans Saints' bounty scandal came to light earlier this year, hits after the whistle and extra-physical play have taken on new meaning for the 2012 season. Along with the replacement referees calling certain penalties differently, including physical contact with receivers and roughing the passer on quarterbacks, players know they have to watch out for themselves.
"There was some extracurricular stuff going on after the plays," Griffin said. "They were doing a lot of dirty things. I still think they have an extremely good team, that doesn't take anything away from them, but the game was unprofessional. Who am I to talk? I've barely been a pro for very long, but from what I experienced against the Saints compared to that game, it was definitely unprofessional and it does need to be cleaned up."
Griffin has put himself in harm's way just by his style of play. He has rushed the ball 20 times on the season, a number that will only increase as time goes on. The Rams only were able to get one sack in the game, but the number of late hits and chippy plays far outweighed that number.
He was hit at least four times after throwing the ball and took a bad late hit that didn't draw a flag early in the second half.
"I don't want to tip-toe the lines of anything that's happened with bounties or anything like that, but they were definitely going after me," Griffin said. "They made it a point, obviously, all week to hit me. Some of the shots were cheap of that nature. But it's nothing I can control. Teams are going to try to hit me because they don't think I can take a hit. I think I've proved over my career that I can."
Griffin will have to do his best to protect himself this season because the Redskins will most likely win and lose based on how he plays.
Washington will host the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
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