Robert Griffin III Handles Scout's Criticism the Way a Franchise QB Should

A report surfaced yesterday citing a scout who believes Robert Griffin III has a "selfish streak" and that "he doesn't treat anybody good."

In this long and arduous draft process, this is truly the first public attack on the Heisman Trophy winner—as both a person and in other parts of the report as a football player.

It should come as no surprise that this report surfaced only a week before the draft, or that it happened the same day news broke of the Colts' decision to take Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck No. 1 overall.

We're at the point in the draft process where its difficult to trust anything said by anyone, but there are rumors flying left and right like birds migrating South.

To overreact to one report by an anonymous scout would be foolish, in the very least.

But, naturally, people wanted to talk about it and it didn't take long for RGIII to hear about himself.

Will Brinson of CBSSports.com caught up with the likely No. 2 overall pick and asked him about it. RGIII's response couldn't have been better:

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"You could say [I'm] surprised, but you never know. It's just when the draft gets closer, everybody's going to try and find something wrong with you to try and pull you down, so I'm not going to sit here and argue that, well that guy is dead wrong. But I think the people that know me -- and even in the people in the media have seen -- know I'm not a selfish guy. You know you don't have to fight your own battles -- let other people fight them for you. 

"That's about all I can say about that. I heard it, but it's not something I'm going to address.

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That is the type of answer teams expect from a franchise quarterback.

For starters, the scout's opinion is exactly that, an opinion, and there is no way to verify his words—there is no test for selfishness.

Second, RGIII wisely didn't argue the point or bring added attention to the situation with his response. He acknowledged that he'd heard it and he made it clear that it isn't something that will bother him.

That's the perfect attitude because a lot of people are going to have a lot to say at different times in his career—especially if he plays in the NFC East with quarterbacks like Eli Manning, Michael Vick and Tony Romo.

There is no other division with quarterback talent like that—the NFC North and South would be battling for second—and no other division with quarterbacks who are consistently under fire in the media.

The media is something every young quarterback has to get used to, and RGIII is off to pretty damn good start.

By almost everyone else's account, there is no selfishness from Griffin. By almost everyone else's account, he's just a charismatic guy confident in his abilities and happy to be doing what he's doing.

The Washington Redskins appear more than happy with who Robert Griffin III is, and they can be even happier knowing he can handle a little bit of criticism.