Like most young couples who are on the brink of matrimony, Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III and his fiancée also are engaged in a harvesting of gifts from family and friends.
And in the bizarro version of the dynamic recently experienced by Tavon Austin and Tyron Smith, Griffin has witnessed a sudden outpouring friends who don’t want him to give them something, but who want to give him something.
As revealed Sunday on Griffin’s Twitter page, fans have bought up the items from the online Bed Bath & Beyond registry of Griffin and his future wife, Rebecca Liddicoat.
Griffin’s timeline starts with an acknowledgement of the spontaneous generosity, and continues with his response to the reactions from folks who think that a multimillionaire shouldn’t be seeking or accepting gifts from fans.
In our view, people can spend their money however they choose, whether it’s buying blenders for their sports heroes or contributing to the jackpot for Powerball, which wouldn’t be nearly as successful if its name captured its essence -- a tax on the poor and delusional. The poor and delusional spend lots of money on all sorts of things; if nothing else it stimulates the economy.
While neither poor nor delusional, Griffin reflects the naivete of a 23-year-old. He seemed to be genuinely excited by the unprompted generosity of strangers, and unprepared for the finger wagging from folks who believe a guy who signed a $20 million football contract and who makes millions more from off-field pursuits should be buying his own appliances.
If people want to buy stuff for Griffin or anyone else they don’t personally know, so be it. If other people want to criticize those people for making the purchases or Griffin for accepting them, they can. There’s no right or wrong, just people doing the things they’re entitled to do -- whether it’s spending money on someone who essentially is a stranger or spending time worrying about what that stranger and those buying him stuff do.