Redskins still waiting on RGIII’s clearance

The Redskins were awaiting word Friday evening whether quarterback Robert Griffin III would be medically cleared to return to competition, 15 days after suffering the third concussion of his football career and one week after an independent neurologist reversed his initial decision to approve his return.

Meanwhile, there was no indication that team officials were making moves to release the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner or trade their onetime franchise quarterback.
A person with knowledge of the team’s front-office thinking said last week that the plan was to keep Griffin on the squad as a backup. On Friday afternoon, another person with similar access to the decision-making process said, “He’s on the team.”
With Saturday’s 4 p.m. deadline looming for NFL teams to pare their rosters from 75 to 53, it appeared as if Griffin simply would be shuffled back in the Redskins’ quarterback pecking order.
Coach Jay Gruden said after Thursday’s final preseason game that Griffin would be retested by two medical specialists Friday. Those specialists, according to people with knowledge of the process, are the independent neurologist who reversed himself last week, Robert N. Kurtzke, and a neurosurgeon who will succeed Kurtzke going forward.

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An NFL official said Friday that Kurtzke, who told the Redskins on Aug. 27 he would clear Griffin to play only to rule him out 24 hours later, had resigned from the neurological consultant program operated by the league and the NFL players’ union. Kurtzke will remain responsible to determine when to clear Griffin to return to play from this concussion, the official added.
Individuals close to the process said Kurtzke’s decision to err on the side of caution last week, given Griffin’s concussion history, was sound and the right thing to do, even if it caused confusion because of the reversal.

The new NFL/NFL Players Association neurological consultant to the Redskins is Arlington-based neurosurgeon Abraham Kader, according to the league. Kader was expected to play a role, with Kurtzke, in conducting Griffin’s retest Friday.
Under NFL rules, the Redskins are precluded from trading or releasing Griffin until he is medically cleared. For the same reason, Gruden declined this week to assign him a spot on the team’s depth chart, saying he needed to wait until he was eligible to play.
It’s likely Griffin will drop to No. 3 behind Kirk Cousins, who was named the starting quarterback Monday, and Colt McCoy.

Griffin suffered a concussion against the Detroit Lions on Aug. 20. He rejoined practice less than 72 hours later, speeding through the first four steps of the NFL’s concussion protocol, a mandatory five-step process by which concussed players are evaluated and cleared to return to competition.
On Aug. 27, Griffin spoke to reporters for the first time following the Detroit game. He said he wasn’t sure when he suffered the concussive blow and implied he wasn’t sure whether he actually had been concussed or displayed concussion-like symptoms.

The rise and fall of RGIII, in photos

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Suffering from injuries throughout his career, Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III loses his starting position.

 

That night, the Redskins announced that an independent neurologist had cleared the quarterback to play. But roughly 24 hours later, on the eve of Washington’s game against the Baltimore Ravens, the Redskins released a statement from Kurtzke in which he explained that, after reviewing previously examined “neuropsychology data,” he agreed with a neuropsychologist that Griffin should be withheld from competition. The name of the neuropsychologist has not been made public.
In short, the doctor had second thoughts about the verbal clearance he had relayed to the Redskins the day before. According to people close to the process, the reversal was a prudent course of action, reflecting due consideration by Kurtzke, who was relatively new to the league’s consultant program for concussed players.

In denying Griffin’s clearance, Kurtzke recommended that he be retested in “one-two weeks” before a decision about his readiness to compete was made.
There are no NFL rules or established best practices for releasing information about a concussed player’s clearance. And it’s unclear whether the Redskins were hasty in announcing Griffin had been cleared based on a verbal assurance or whether the Redskins properly announced his return in a timely manner only to have the decision reversed the next day.
Gruden said Aug. 29, shortly after the Redskins defeated the Ravens, that the backtracking did not suggest that the Redskins were “incompetent,” noting that Griffin’s medical clearance was out of the team’s hands.

One NFL executive said Friday he was puzzled by the reversal, which he characterized as unusual. He said he was equally puzzled by the neurologist setting a timetable for Griffin’s retest, given that the NFL concussion protocol attaches no timetable to any step of the process. Recovery and medical clearance take as long as it takes, the official said.
Notes: Backup strong safety and special teams standout Akeem Davis was among those waived as the Redskins began to trim their roster, a person with knowledge of the situation said. Seventh-round pick Austin Reiter, a center, also was cut. . . .
The Redskins were in the process of working out an injury settlement with tight end D.J. Williams, who missed Thursday’s final preseason game because of a left groin strain.