Griffin: “I want to be in Olympics”

The last time I spoke with Robert Griffin (before this week) he had just completed one of the most incredible feats in Texas high school track history.

Griffin was a junior at Copperas Cove High School and had just set state records in the 110-meter hurdles (13.55 seconds) and 300-meter hurdles (35.33 seconds), the latter coming one-hundredth of a second off the national prep record.

From then on, I believed one day I’d be watching Griffin, who had thighs as big as tree trunks at 16, compete in the Olympics.

He’s well on his way, having won the Big 12 400-meter hurdles championship in May and coming one spot away from qualifying for Beijing at the Olympic trials in June, despite being just 18 years old.

What I didn’t know was that Griffin would become a star quarterback.

As a freshman.

But that’s what’s happened.

Sure, Griffin, the son of a retired Army sergeant, was also a standout quarterback at Copperas Cove, having led the Bulldawgs to back-to-back Class 4A state championship appearances.

He always maintained that he wanted to play for a coach that would also support his track career, which is one reason why Griffin originally committed to Art Briles at Houston, then followed him to Baylor.