As a fan of the perennial cesspool known as DC Pro Sports, Redskins QB Robert Griffin III (aka: RGIII) is one of the few guys who makes you dream of a less crappy future. The Nationals have fallen off, Ja Rule-style, after last season's breakout. The Wizards are the Wizards. Who cares about the Caps? So yeah, it's RGIII or Bust, even for a non-football fan like me. The guy's that good.[1]
Of course, there are people who are real life Redskins fans, not the bandwagon variety like me. These folks prolly dream about Super Bowls at night, and their fandom is darn near unparalleled in the NFL. Seriously, when people are this fanatical about a team that hasn't won anything in 20 years, you know something's a lil' off.
Very few Redskins fans will score an invite to the wedding of the Robert Griffin III and Rebecca Liddicoat this summer but that apparently hasn't stopped them from sending gifts. According to RG3, his fans have already bought every item on the couple's registry with Bed, Bath & Beyond. On Sunday, the NFL's Offensive Rookie of The Year shared the photo to prove it.So, in short, after the QB's registry was somehow discovered online, fans flocked to buy him and his fiancee everything they had listed. And of course, this has pissed off a lot of people who don't think a multimillionaire should be accepting gifts from peons. ESPN's
The next several tweets in Griffin's timeline after he shared this photo suggest that the reaction wasn't all positive to the mountainous quantity of bath towels, cookware and flagrant candles that he had received. As he tends to do, RG3 fired back at those critics.
After being selected as the No. 2 selection in the 2012 NFL Draft, Griffin inked a four-year, guaranteed deal worth $21.1 million with the Redskins. Does this mean that he should be prohibited from receiving a mixer or set of picture frames on the occasion of his wedding?
Personally, I wouldn't buy a wedding gift for a multimillionaire, but that's just me. I barely wanna buy wedding gifts for people I know and love, so the thought of spending $50 on some hand towels for someone I only know via television is downright comical. Then again, I'm not a Skins fan, and no player of Griffin's caliber plays for the Wizards. If Lebron James for some odd reason bumped his head and demanded to be traded to DC, I prolly would buy those hand towels and not think twice.[2]
So I'll call this one Classy. The fans buying the gifts (obviously... this is DC after all) have the money, and if they want to tell bar stories about how their favorite athlete is hydrating bia the Brita water filters they purchased, so be it.[3] It's a free country, and people spend money on dumb sh*t that makes rich people richer erryday. It's not that much different than handing Daniel Snyder $90 to stand on a "Party Deck" to watch a game from 2 miles away. So basically, whatever.
Question: Ashy or Classy?!? Should Griffin accept the gifts, or return them? Would you guy a person you don't actually know a gift with your hard earned money?
[1] I get how thirsty people can be for a winner, but the level of fandom exhibited toward this guy borders on idolatry. Seriously, people do sh*t like this, and you kinda worry about Griffin's well being when he (inevitably) lets people down with a 3-13 season. Not because of Griffin, but because DC Pro Sports.
[2] Hyperbole. But still...
[3] It'd be nice if Griffin sent every fan who bought a gift an autographed pic, and asked his actual wedding guests to donate the money they would have spent on gifts to charity. I'm not a public relations expert, I just occasionally play one on this blog.
