The Legacy of RG3
Robert Griffin III was like a cat burglar with a calling card. Out of the blue and with no fair warning, he came and took what he wanted. No one could stop him for an entire football season. His lasting reward was a Heisman Trophy as the best player in all the land. But then, just as fast as he arrived, he was gone. More than on-lookers or even opponents, the Baylor Bears feel the brunt of this departure. Griffin, the thief in the night, snuck out of the house leaving behind just a legacy and nothing more.
To stick with a convoluted, albeit apt analogy, Baylor is now forced to move on, knowing they will never get another glimpse of RGIII. All they have is that legacy he left to mark his territory, to let folks know he was here and conquered.
But that legacy is nothing to sneeze at. It may have raised the school to heights it could not have dreamed of. No more is Baylor “that school where that player was killed.” Or, as odd as it sounds, an even worse alternative of Baylor being of no consequence or fame whatsoever. Now, the Baylor Bears are a Big 12 offensive juggernaut. They are a great men’s basketball program and have the best women’s basketball team in the country. Thanks to RGIII and his Heisman Trophy, Baylor is actually a sports center…a big-time program in a country where all collegiate sports matter, except the ones that don’t, where women’s basketball matters a little, men’s basketball matters a lot and division one football is the pinnacle.
Whether the Bears are able to succeed and excel on the field this football season will depend on their current players and not on Griffin’s legacy. He certainly improved the status of the school and assuredly brought in better recruits but on the field, plays must still be executed. If Baylor falls by the wayside, drops into that familiar pit of one-hit wonders, it could be explained, even expected. Then, nothing more will remain from the times that Robert Griffin III ran those huddles except his memory that was implanted in the viewing public’s mind. Let’s hope, for Baylor’s sake, that something else comes.
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