Robert Griffin III To Appear On Cover Of GQ “NFL Kickoff Issue”

This month, Capital Games had transformed into a Robert Griffin III-centric blog -- thanks in large part to August being the scarcest sports month of the year and a local baseball team that will remain nameless being incredibly underwhelming and disappointing -- so let us continue the theme by sharing RGIII's cover and interview from GQ Magazine's "NFL Kickoff Issue," which features the Redskins quarterback.

(Photo credit: Ben Watts/GQ Magazine)

In this issue, which is available on newsstands next Tuesday (and now online), RGIII opens up about a myriad of topics, from his rehabilitation process to what advice he would give to Bryce Harper about playing with an injury:

A few choice cuts:

On former ESPN talking head Rob Parker’s comments about him and his “blackness”:

“There’s some wrong is what he said, but there’s some wrong in him losing his job as well. And I don’t want people to think that I, you know, that I’m trying to stick it to Rob Parker, or that I’m happy he lost his job. But I was very unhappy with the things he said. I mean, why did he say that?”

On the aforementioned advice he would give Harper:

“If I start talking about Bryce, I’ll be a Captain Hindsight, which is what we call people who say, ‘Should’ve done that.’ But okay, being a Captain Hindsight, if doc tells you to sit out, you sit out,” he says. “I’m a team guy. That’s why I was out there playing with the injury I had. I wasn’t doing that for self-fame. I was doing that for the team. I wanted to show that I’ll do anything for them. So much so that I blew my knee out, and that’s fine. But I think, after the fact, that while you have to do what’s best for the team, you also have to do what’s best for you. So if his [Harper’s] knee is messed up and it’s not responding, then he doesn’t play. That would be my advice to Bryce: Whatever they tell you, you decide what to do for you, and that’s best for the team.”

On his thoughts regarding the possibility of fellow NFL players coming out:

"Yeah, man. I think there are [gay players] right now, and if they're looking for a window to just come out, I mean, now is the window. My view on it is, yes, I am a Christian, but to each his own. You do what you want to do. If some Christians want to look at being gay as a sin, then thinking about other women, committing adultery—or any of those other sins that are in the Bible—those are sins, too. And God looks at all of us the same way."

On his rep for being a teetotaler:

"Never had a drop. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I've never done any drugs. I need my body to be at its peak performance, and I want to have a long career, and alcohol can inhibit that sometimes. And I don't need to get in trouble because I went out and got drunk one night and I don't know how to be drunk. But she"—he nodded at Rebecca, his wife, who sat with us for part of the interview—"drinks, and I don't judge, and what I've told her a bunch of times is the first time I drink, I'll drink with her. When I'm done playing and I retire, and it's time for me to go sit in a big house and do nothing all day, I'm going to drink. You know?"


Follow Adam on Twitter @AdamVingan and e-mail your story ideas to adamvingan (at) gmail.com.

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