Robert Griffin III reveals he received warning about excessive innuendos

Robert Griffin III has turned into a solid broadcaster for ESPN, calling college football games and serving on pre-game NFL coverage for the network. He has developed a nature for certain interesting one-liners, but those comments caught him a warning at one point.

During his young broadcasting career, Griffin coined “Big Penix Energy” to describe quarterback Michael Penix Jr. Then, there was Griffin’s predictable call to a touchdown run by Michigan’s Alex Orji during the 2022 season.

However, Griffin revealed in a recent interview with Kay Adams of “Up & Adams” that he received a warning from ESPN after one game. That game involved Oregon State and Stanford and multiple references directed at the respective mascots involved.

“We had this game for Oregon State, and you know the Oregon State mascot, right? They’re the Beavers. So, I’m calling the game for Oregon State, and it’s Oregon State against Stanford,” said Griffin. “The Stanford Cardinal, you know it’s a tree.

“Early in the game, I’m like, ‘Let’s see how much wood these Beavers can take,’ right? Something like that. It wasn’t immediate, but not going to lie, I had like six other really borderline things that I said in that game.”

The performance, Griffin admits, was “egregious.” So much so he says he received a call after the broadcast to caution him to tone it down a bit.

“I got a call after that game because it was way too much. It was egregious,” admitted Griffin. “It wasn’t like ‘Hey, you’re gonna get fired if you keep doing this.’ But it was like, ‘Yo, you probably shouldn’t keep doing this.’”

.@RGIII on getting in trouble with ESPN after calling a game ?@heykayadams pic.twitter.com/CujT5oJvnV

— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) December 22, 2023

Paul Harvey

Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.