After the Redskins beat the Cowboys on Sunday night to win the NFC East and end the Cowboys’ playoff hopes, Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III made a beeline for Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, hugged him and spoke some words of encouragement into his ear.
Thanks to the NFL Films microphones, we now know what Griffin said: Griffin, who surely knew that Romo was about to face a hailstorm of criticism for his three-interception game against the Redskins, was attempting to lift Romo’s spirits.
“Hey Tony. I just wanted to say to you, don’t listen to what anybody else is saying about you. You’re a great quarterback, man. And this game doesn’t mean anything,” Griffin said to Romo, in comments that will air Wednesday night on Showtime’s Inside the NFL.
Griffin is a classy young man, and his decision to seek Romo out and console him after the game is the type of gesture that makes so many people admire Griffin as a man as much as they enjoy watching him as a player.
But the truth is, that game did mean something. It meant a lot. It meant that when we talk about Romo and Griffin 20 years from now, when both of them are retired, we’ll mention that Griffin led his team to the playoffs as a rookie, and we’ll discuss the many times Romo and his team came up short in the biggest games.