SI

Robert Griffin III, Jay Gruden Get Into Social Media Spat Over Former Days Together in Washington

This quickly got personal.

Kevin Sweeney

Robert Griffin III, Jay Gruden Get Into Social Media Spat Over Former Days Together in Washington
Robert Griffin III, Jay Gruden Get Into Social Media Spat Over Former Days Together in Washington /

Robert Griffin III and his former head coach in Washington, Jay Gruden, went at it on X (formerly known as Twitter) during the Philadelphia Eagles-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game on Monday night.

It all started with a seemingly innocuous tweet from Gruden, who was criticizing the Eagles’ pass protection with the following quote: “If I ever put a QB through what Philly is putting Jalen [Hurts] through, I apologize. Pick up a blitz!” But the tweet didn’t sit well with Griffin III, whose career in Washington was derailed by injuries. His incredulous quote tweet quickly racked up thousands of retweets and started quite the back-and-forth between him and his former coach.

Content is unavailable

Gruden was RGIII’s coach for two seasons in Washington after taking over for Mike Shanahan. He named Griffin III the starting quarterback out of training camp in 2014, but the quarterback then missed time with an injury before being benched shortly after his return. Then, in 2015, Gruden awarded the starting quarterback job to Kirk Cousins over Griffin III and made the former Heisman Trophy winner the third-string quarterback for the entire season.

Gruden responded to Griffin III’s tweet asking “[you] weren’t prepared, Robert?” before the quarterback pounced on Gruden again, sharing another hilarious image as he criticized his former coach’s handling of him, accusing him of saying he didn’t know how to use Griffin III’s unique skill set.

Gruden then rounded out the discourse with a gif Tuesday morning, seemingly surprised by how viral the conversation had gone.

Content is unavailable

Here are some of the best reactions to the social media beef.

Content is unavailable
Content is unavailable
Content is unavailable
Published
Kevin Sweeney
KEVIN SWEENEY

Kevin Sweeney is a staff writer at Sports Illustrated covering college basketball and the NBA draft. He joined the SI staff in July 2021 and also serves host and analyst for The Field of 68. Sweeney is a Naismith Trophy voter and ia member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Home/NFL