When Robert Griffin III Speaks--or Tweets--People Listen (or Read)

It must be tough to be in your early 20s and have the weight of a fan base resting on your shoulders--or in Robert Griffin III's case his knees. The pressure on guys like him is intense from performing on the field, doing the right thing off the field, and saying nothing that anyone can twist or misinterpret to get in you in hot water with, well--anyone.

So when a player such as Robert Griffin III tweets or speaks there is one thing that you can be sure of. Everyone--and I mean everyone--will be listening (or reading; you know what I mean).

Thursday night RG3 sent a series of tweets that are likely going to produce a whole lot of blog posts and specualtion (hey!). Why? Well, not just because they are from him or what they said. Almost more because of what they didn't say:

"You ever say something & people interpret it a certain way but you didn't mean it that way but meant it how you said it??? Yea..."

""The few" will always post pics & make fun of the injured. Don't let it cloud your judgement when it comes to the good in this world"

"In a land of freedom we are held hostage by the tyranny of political correctness"

"Tyranny has not just 1 meaning."

"Tyranny- "a condition imposed by some outside agency or force <living under the tyranny of the clock" or political correctness...."

"If we speak..we say it the wrong way. If we do not speak we are cowards...."

"Hate is strong. But love is even stronger. Appreciate the support people. I'm out for the night."

Huh?

What exactly he is talking about no one but him knows. Hopefully we will find out only because it is obvious he is thinking hard about what he feels is a pretty serious matter--but what? With such well thought out words there will be many who will try to interpret a lot. That is for sure!

Of course the problem will be just what he alluded to; someone will take the words and misinterpret them. Maybe it is intention and they want headlines; maybe it is an honest to goodness accident. Either way it just ads to the pressure that a young person that most of us still call 'a kid' should not have to deal with.

Comes with the territory right? It's what happens when you make millions to play a game for a  living, right?

Keep in mind sports fans, guys like him make that kind of money only because of the way that we fanatically follow the every pitfall and victory of the team that guys like RG3 play for. If we didn't watch and hang on every last bit of information (yes, I know that everyone doesn't, but enough do--myself included) then guys like him would not exist to play this game.

Of course that's why we do watch it--because of the RG3s of the league. But do you think he would have worked so hard to get where he is if the fans did not love what he does so much? Yeah, his own competitive spirit has a lot to do with it, but no one trains to play a pick up game in the back yard.

So is there a point to all my rambling? Yeah...I think so...

I think that what I'm trying to say is that what fans, writers--especially bloggers--, talking heads on TV, and anyone else that likes to comment on sports need to do is remember that while we love it it is essentially just a game.

Back off these guys, and let them live their lives. Who knows--maybe if we do they'll actually play better.