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Robert Griffin III discusses emotional recovery, ETA and relationship with Mike Shanahan

Robert Griffin III cried upon waking up and discovering doctors had reconstructed his knee in January. (Getty Images)

Robert Griffin III cried upon waking up and discovering doctors had reconstructed his knee. (Getty Images)

Robert Griffin III's first extensive media session since undergoing reconstructive knee surgery in January, revealed that the Redskins' franchise quarterback went under anesthesia without knowing what what was wrong or what he had in store when he woke up. As it turned out, he was hit with a wave of emotion.

From the Redskins transcript:

"You know the tough part about it honestly was I went in the surgery not knowing what was wrong. I knew I was going to have to get my LCL repaired but looking at the MRIs and everything we couldn’t really tell if my ACL needed to be repaired. So you know I have been through this before so I know if you have a patella tendon graft on the same knee, you can’t get it from the same knee. So I knew when I got put to sleep if I woke up and felt my left knee that I’d had surgery on my ACL. So I woke up, the nurse didn’t notice I was up, and I felt my left leg and I went back to sleep because I didn’t want to have to deal with it at that time. Yeah, I cried, real men cry. It doesn’t matter and I moved on."

Griffin managed to run drills while wearing a large brace with other rehabbing teammates and said he hopes doctors will clear him for training camp. The Redskins have described Griffin's rehab and recovery as ahead of schedule, and the quarterback said his knee "feels great" but his availability for training camp and preseason games remains to be seen. He's not willing to risk his NFL career by coming back too soon for Week 1.

“There are two phases left in my rehab, explosive sprinting and cutting. Those are the only two things left with my knee being about four-and-a-half months out of surgery. I am a little bit ahead but the team is doing a good job allowing me to do the things I can do at the moment.

“The timetable for the explosive sprinting is over the next couple weeks and the cutting a couple weeks after the sprinting. I am not worried about those phases. One of my goals is to be on the field for training camp. At this point I am just worried about what I can control. As far as the season goes, I want to be back by Week 1. As soon as I woke up out of surgery I put the date of the first game as the pass code to my phone. Playing in Week 1 has always been the goal, but I am not going to risk my career to play in one game. I am definitely all in for Week 1 but also all in for my career too.”

Griffin said his relationship with head coach Mike Shanahan, who was criticized for keeping the rookie in a playoff loss to the Seahawks after he suffered an obvious injury, was not in need of repair.

“It was an unfortunate situation at the end of last year. I do not think there is anything that needs to be repaired. We just need to move forward and let the bad taste come out of everyone’s mouths. We need to move forward. The only thing I needed to repair from last year was my knee and that is repaired. I am ready to go.”