Reuters

If an unauthorized T-shirt is worth $10,000, it’s hard to know what revealing a little medical equipment might have cost Robert Griffin III last night.

The Redskins quarterback said he was asked to cover up the brace that was supporting his surgically repaired right knee, and that the request came from the league.

“Everybody in the league kept calling down to our sideline saying I needed to cover the brace up,” Griffin said, via Mark Maske of the Washington Post. “I don’t understand that one. But that’s why we had to continue to do some stuff to cover the brace up with my sock. It was the same brace. It just looked bigger because they kept putting stuff over it.”

The league has a uniform inspector at each game, the guy who’s responsible for $5,000 sock fines and the like. That’s the same department that hit Griffin with a $10,000 bill for his “Operation Patience” shirt during the preseason, when he was on the field warming up in non-licensed gear.

“Man, I don’t know what the league’s doing,” Griffin said. “I got fined 10 grand for a shirt. I mean, I don’t know.”

We do. The league is protective over its image to a manic fault, and they’re not going to make exceptions for anyone.