I didn’t know who Robert Griffin was until several years ago when Brownwood was in the same district as Copperas Cove and we played them with him as quarterback. He was really good! The first time we played it was in Brownwood and the last time we played them – and him – it was in Copperas Cove. They were ranked number one in the state. We were a heavy underdog.
We kicked off to them to start the ballgame. They went three and out and punted to us. We went three and out and punted back to them. Next drive, they had an ineffective first down, an ineffective second down, and then on third down we blitzed Mr. Griffin and Jordan Longoria may have put the hardest hit I have ever seen by a linebacker on him. He hit him legal, but high, and hit him so hard that Griffin’s helmet went flying off as he went flying back. He jumped up and jumped in the face of the referee and started screaming and the yellow flag came out. Griffin didn’t calm down. He walked over, picked up his helmet, went back to the referee and threw his helmet, bouncing it off the turf. Another yellow flag! Unsportsmanlike conduct penalties are frowned upon by officials, coaches and even some parents. If you get two in a game you are automatically ejected – and Robert Griffin was. His coaches and his teammates and their fans were all throwing a fit, but he was out of the game. I’ll never forget halftime that night . I had read that his dad was full time military and as Griffin left the field at halftime, his dad walked up to him outside the Copperas Cove dressing room and the entire twenty to twenty-five minutes of halftime, dad has his finger in the face of his son, and I assume it did some good. I don’t think he got thrown out of any game after that, including at Baylor, where he won the Heisman trophy. Then he spent a few years with the Washington Redskins.
Here’s part two of the story. My good friend Jay Allison has a suite at Cowboy stadium. He invited my wife and I to come up for a night game between the Cowboys and the Redskins. He said, “I’m just going to have some of my family there and a couple of friends, y’all come, up so we did”. Two of the first people we met were friends of Jay’s from Baylor and their names were Griffin. Jay said, “I want to introduce you to R.G. 3’s mom and dad”. We had an opportunity to talk to them a bit and about halftime of the ballgame, his dad and I kind of got off by ourselves and got better acquainted. After a few minutes he finally asked me, “Where are you a sportscaster”? I said, “Well, I’m from a little town in Central Texas and you probably never heard of it”. He said, “What is it?”
I said, “Brownwood”. He turned away and never spoke to me the rest of the evening. I don’t think Brownwood conjured up very good memories for him. By the way, the Redskins won that night and R.G. III was injured and didn’t play.
Colt McCoy did and won.
Let me back up and tell you that Brownwood, mainly because Griffin didn’t play, won against the number one team in the state that night in Copperas Cove. By the way, none of the Griffin family has been in touch with me since.
Until next time, so long everybody.
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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].