What Did RG3 Say That Peyton Manning Hasn't?

In terms of RG3 takes, it appears we're not quite out of the woods. The quarterback's comments after Washington's pratfall against Tampa Bay—in which he more or less said football is a team effort—gave everyone the opportunity to take a swing at the already-half-broken piñata. Here's one more bad take, from Brian Billick (emphasis mine):

After a game in which he threw two interceptions, converted only four of 13 third-down situations and got sacked six times, Griffin, in addressing the media, said, "It takes 11 men." He went on to add, "If you want to look at the good teams in this league and the great quarterbacks, the Peytons (Manning) and the Aaron Rodgers, those guys don't play well if their guys don't play well."

Think for a minute: Can you imagine Manning or Rodgers using those words after a defeat? If you want to give RGIII the benefit of the doubt — that what he was really attempting to say was, We all have to play better — then at the very least you have to say he failed miserably (especially for someone who was working toward a master's degree in communications before he left Baylor for the NFL).

Yeah! Peyton Manning would never take passive-aggressive jabs at his teammates after a loss!

Manning tries to explain. Sometimes he shrugs. Sometimes he shakes his head. His voice is soft. What is there to say?

"Pittsburgh came in here and played better than us. It's hard to admit that, it's hard to accept that. But unfortunately, that's the truth."

The Steelers' blitz that often wrecked Manning's passing game? "I'm trying to be a good teammate here. Let's just say we had some problems with protection."

Look, Manning's one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, and he's a dickhead on the field. Both of those things can be true at once. He shouts at Donald Brown; he grills receivers who don't run clean routes; he gets huffy when the pocket falls apart on a third down. Let's all just be thankful that RG3 didn't yell at a scoreboard operator.

Photo: AP

H/t to Jason Gay