"As head coach of the Washington Redskins, I am responsible not only to our owner, to our general manager, to our fans and to the game itself, I am also responsible to the players, to their legacies and to their families.

Every week, every day, every minute on the field, these men, some of them just barely removed from boyhood, entrust their bodies, their minds and their very lives to my experience, my knowledge and the unwritten belief that I will act not only in the best interest of the team and its supporters but in the best interest of each and every one of them, individually, as well.

For while the game we play…. Let me repeat that…. the game we play… may be a team sport, no team was ever built without individuals, men, women, girls or boys, willing to give of themselves to a greater collective, a larger whole, realizing that many united will often accomplish more than one alone. In a sport like ours, where grown men are conditioned since earliest memory to sacrifice themselves for the good of the team, to give of themselves for those around them, to lay themselves down in defense of their brothers, where there is no "I" in team, where second place is just another way of saying best loser, where fine lines are drawn between "injured" and "hurt…."

In a sport like ours, the sport I love, the sport I've given everything to for nearly forty years, the sport that almost killed me when I was a young man, somebody has to be the grown up.

That somebody is me.

I have to draw the line.

I have to listen to my conscience and I have to make the tough decisions. I should never have given Robert the opportunity to tell me whether or not he was fit to play. I should never have allowed Robert to risk himself and the future of this team by bamboozling me into believing his body was capable of withstanding the rigors of what it would be asked when my own eyes clearly told me it was not.

Sure, the medical staff cleared him.

But I've been in this game too long not to know when I'm being sold a bill of goods. I mortgaged a sizeable chunk of our future to draft Robert last year. To risk him so recklessly in his first playoff appearance was wrong, and may well have bordered on negligent. I put him at risk, and I put this team at risk.

Football may well be a sport of risk, but those risks must be better calculated, particularly by the guy in charge, and that guy is me.

I should've pulled Robert from that game at halftime at the latest. I should've taped him into his locker if he wouldn't listen.

I was wrong, and I admit it.

The buck stops with me."

That's what Mike Shanahan should've said.

On the Medical Front….

Famed orthopedist Dr. James Andrews, after clearing Robert Griffin III to play, then saying he didn't clear him to play, then saying he did clear him to play but only because Griffin was too shifty to prevent from returning to the field, repaired Griffin's damaged knee once more, and was immediately quoted as saying, "We expect a full recovery, and it is everybody's hope and belief that due to Robert's high motivation, he will be ready for the 2013 season."

Huh….

Unsaid, stunningly, is that if Griffin is NOT ready to return for the 2013 season, it'll be because he wasn't motivated highly enough. Frankly, I can't see why they bothered with the surgery. If Griffin is so highly motivated, why not just put all the responsibility for his recovery and immediate return squarely on Griffin's shoulders?

Griffin decided he could play, right? Griffin made all the decisions, right? Griffin somehow convinced two grown men, famed-orthopedist-Dr.-James-Andrews and head-coach-Mike-Shanahan, both of whom had been practicing their chosen professions, perfecting their chosen crafts, since long before Griffin was even born, to listen to him rather than their own collective, decades-long wisdom and perspective, right?

Maybe the Hippocratic oath doesn't apply to "famed orthopedists," particularly when they roam an NFL sideline.

Good luck and god speed, Robert. With these guys watching out for you, you're going to want to keep your head on a swivel.

Let's Go Caps!

Thanks to the Capitals for their recent email in which I was invited, "As a valued Caps customer," to purchase tickets as part of, "an exclusive presale for Caps single-game tickets!"

As a sign of their generosity of spirit, "the Capitals will pay the convenience fees on all tickets purchased through 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 13."

Well tickle me pink and kiss my britches!

After locking out the players (and the fans!), for the third time in less than 20 years, mind you, the Capitals are going to pay my convenience fees….

Our Friends at the NRA….

Kudos to the NRA for showing us all, once again, how tone deaf tone deaf can really be.

After responding to the Newtown massacre with a recommendation that what America really needs is more guns, on the one-month anniversary of the cold-blooded murder of 26 innocent individuals at the hands of a mentally disturbed individual armed with guns, the NRA released a free "practice range app" in Apple's app store.

The game, rated 4+, comes complete with simulated versions of a Beretta M-9 handgun, a Colt M-16 assault rifle with 15-round clip and a Mossberg 500 pump-action shotgun.

Players who want access to assault weapons similar to the one used by Adam Lanza to slaughter those 26 innocents in Connecticut will have to pay the NRA 99 cents, per simulated weapon, for the privilege.

$3.00 off your purchase of $30.00 or more!