the story of RGIII, the WWE … and me?

(photo by Brian Murphy)

It’s no secret by now that Washington Redskins defensive end Adam Carriker is a huge fan of professional wrestling.

In fact, I wrote an in-depth feature story about Carriker and his love affair with the squared circle back in 2010.

Well, since the 28-year-old suffered a torn quad tendon that prematurely ended his season during the second game of the season, he’s found an interesting way to keep himself busy — by co-hosting a weekly radio show called “4th and Pain” with Chuck Carroll.

Each week, Carriker and Carroll award an official WWE championship belt to the Redskins player they deemed who had the biggest impact in that week’s game. Previous winners this season include Alfred Morris (twice), Ryan Kerrigan (twice), Pierre Garcon, Lorenzo Alexander and Tyler Polumbus.

As you can see, while the rest of the football loving world has been focused on each and every snap taken by franchise quarterback Robert Griffin III, the guys from “4th and Pain” have gone out of their way to spread the love around.

Last week though, the inevitable happened — Griffin earned the belt after he was nearly perfect, completing 14 of 15 passes for 200 yards with four touchdowns as he torched the Philadelphia Eagles in Washington’s easy 31-7 victory.

A few days later, Carroll presented the championship belt to Griffin in an impromptu ceremony in the team’s locker room and that was that … until the powers that be at WWE decided to spotlight the occasion on this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw.

Not only did they show RGIII accepting the belt (and honoring John Cena in the process), but the WWE also used two of my photos of Griffin during the video package. It was definitely a cool moment to see my work from the sidelines appear on one of the most popular cable shows of all time,* and it was even sweeter because I was the one who first broke the story of Carriker’s obsession with professional wrestling back in ’10.

*Although, to be fair, as you can see from the screen capture at the top of this page, they did manage to misspell my first name. Oh well.

So congrats to the guys from “4th and Pain,” and thank you for sharing the moment with me.

And for those who missed it, here’s a link to the video.

1 comment

  1. Michelle
    November 27, 2012 at 1:23 pm

    I wish you knew how thrilled and proud I am each time one of your dreams come true. You really are living the life you always wanted. Love you!

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