There's a number of interesting parallels between Robert Griffin III and Jayden Daniels. They were both Heisman trophy winners who went No. 2 overall to Washington and won Rookie of the Year honors before having a down second season. Griffin might hope that their similarities will let Daniels see that his current actions with LSU are bad for him.
Daniels has reportedly filed a cease-and-desist against LSU over name, image and likeness and is allegedly mad over the school's refusal to retire his No. 5 jersey (an honor that's only been done four times in its history, and not for a single player who played after 1978). The decision has earned Daniels the mockery of NFL fans everywhere.
In response to Daniels' actions, Griffin made a video where he explained why it's such a bad idea to pursue things the way that he had. His reasoning boiled down to jersey retirements being an honor instead of a demand, putting him at odds with the LSU fanbase, and letting this situation interfere with his vital season with the Commanders.
“Every Heisman Trophy winner’s jersey number should be retired in college football,” Griffin said. “It’s the most exclusive fraternity in the world. But hey, this cease and desist letter from Jayden Daniels’ team is a colossal mistake for three reasons. Reason number one: Jersey retirements are an honor. It’s not something to be demanded, and it certainly isn’t something you should try to strong arm your school into doing for you.
“Reason number two: Daniels’ team has put him in direct odds with the LSU fan base, one of the most passionate fan bases in all of sports. When you say that you feel profoundly disrespected and you don’t feel like you’re getting the same treatment of Joe Burrow, it is very easy for LSU fans to say, ‘Oh, we’ll definitely take 15-0 national champion Joe Burrow with the BUREAUX on his back over 10-3 Jayden Daniels.’ They are going to pick Joe Burrow every single time.
“And number three, the Washington Commanders are in their most important season, and Jayden Daniels is going into the most important year of his entire career, and he’s created a massive distraction,” Griffin said. “His team has created that distraction for him, and now people are going to nitpick him, nitpick everything else around him, and it’s not the kind of distraction you want going into this season. Timing is everything, people, and this was the absolute worst timing for Jayden Daniels and his image to the masses.”
"The Correct Take"
While some fans disagreed with the semantics of Griffin's words, his take was largely seen as the "correct" one since so many all-time great college players don't have their jerseys retired either.
"Anthony Richardson and Graham Mertz both wore 15 at Florida after Tebow. But if JD wants to play it like this, I’d call his bluff. LSU takes down everything and put it in storage, removes him from all promo material, then sends a C&D letter barring him from using anything LSU related," one user on X replied.
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"As a LSU fan, and a Jayden fan, this is the correct take. I do love it though for the cowboys though that a qb for a division rival is so caught up on a kid wearing his old number 3 weeks before the season starts…" wrote another.
"Retiring jerseys is a dumb tradition. Perhaps it makes sense for generational talent—the undisputed GOATs—but not for every Heisman winner. Needs to be super rare to be special anyway," a third remarked.
After this whole ordeal, Daniels is going to have to do something pretty special to save face.
