Following succesful surgery on the damaged ACL and LCL in his knee, Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III was denied the use of a wheelchair to return from the operating room to his hospital bed by Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan, it was reported early Wednesday.
“No, let him walk. He can make it,” Shanahan reportedly said while waving off a wheelchair-pushing nurse approaching the still-groggy Griffin. “It’s only, what, a couple hundred yards? He can make it that far.”
When questioned by reporters as to the wisdom of allowing his franchise quarterback to walk down several hospital corridors immediately following delicate knee surgery, Shanahan replied, “I looked at the doc (orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews) and asked if he was good to go. He sort of gave me this kind of half-wave. I took that to mean he was cleared to resume all normal activities.”
“Yeah it was a pretty tough walk,” said a still wincing Griffin. “But I didn’t want to let Coach Shanahan down. I do wish that he’d let me use the elevator instead of walking up those three flights of stairs, but what’s done is done, right?”
“And besides, he’s won two Super Bowls, so I guess he knows what he’s talking about,” concluded the quarterback. “Still, I’m not looking forward to later, when Coach wants me to run laps around the ER for half an hour.
