In January 2011, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler sprained his MCL in the NFC championship game. Rather than stay in the locker room or head to the hospital, he stood on the sideline under a heavy coat and watched the Bears lose to the Green Bay Packers.





Doing so caused other NFL players to take to social media and rip him to shreds for his perceived lack of toughness.

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"Cmon cutler u have to come back. This is the NFC championship if u didn't know," Arizona Cardinals safety Kerry Rhodes tweeted.

"All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee … I played the whole season on one," Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew concurred.

Arizona's Darnell Dockett said Cutler shouldn't be allowed to shower with his teammates after the game. Hall of Famer Deion Sanders blasted that "in the playoffs u must drag me off the field."

On and on it went, an avalanche of vitriol seen and read by every football fan in America. Presumably, that includes current Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, then a sophomore at Baylor University.

Or Griffin could've learned it himself through years of playing football, where the cart-me-off-the-field toughness is perhaps the most admired characteristic of the game.

Griffin buckled his previously injured right knee in the first quarter of the Redskins' 24-14 NFC wild-card loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. Yet he stayed in the game until he wound up in a heap with a more significant injury in the fourth quarter.

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Afterwards, coach Mike Shanahan was asked: Isn't it code in the NFL for a starting quarterback to try and play through any injury, no matter how significant?

"I think so," he said. "It should be."

It should be?

"That's the type of player that you want and we understand that there's a fine line between being injured and hurt," Shanahan continued. "A lot of guys are hurting this time of year. They get hurt in game. You want your guy to be a leader."

Griffin underwent surgery Wednesday to repair his LCL and reconstruct a previously reconstructed ACL. It was deemed a success and while the road back is long and arduous, there is hope he doesn't miss a snap next season.

"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," Dr. James Andrews said in a statement.

The blame for Griffin's injury – not to mention Washington's loss – has been thorough and pointed in many directions. Some of it has focused on Griffin. Much of it has gone the way of Shanahan, who should've pulled him if only because he was so ineffective [six series, 44 total yards, two turnovers following touchdown drives on the first two possessions] that he didn't give Washington the best chance of winning.

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