Robert Griffin III is a legendary college football quarterback who played in his share of tough environments. Because of that, the 2011 Heisman Trophy Winner recently partnered with Goodyear to recognize the “Road Tested” players and fans who leave their home stadiums to take on the challenges of road games each week. PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to Griffin who recently took part in a survey from Goodyear and The Player’s Tribune to find out college football’s toughest road game environments. The survey revealed that Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, the home of the Penn State Nittany Lions, is the toughest road game environment. But does Griffin, who played football at Baylor University, agree with that?
“You think of the white out at Penn State. It’s iconic,” Griffin exclusively told PopCulture. “So I actually had a teammate who transferred in from Penn State, Phil Taylor, big dude. He probably came in weighing like 420 pounds when he first got to Baylor. And we’d always see the massive snowball fights that happen there at Penn State from students and stuff.
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“So I think it’s just really cool because I actually hope I get to call a Penn State game this year. Obviously, they’re going to be out of the running for ESPN here pretty soon to call games for. But that’s a moment that you want to soak in. And I try to soak in every one of these opportunities that I get just because as a player you don’t get to play everywhere in the country. If you’re in the Big 12, you don’t always get to go to some of these iconic places or if you’re in the SEC, you don’t get to go to the West coast. So I’m not surprised that Penn State was one of them because when you see it on TV it looks majestic.”
While Griffin was playing at Baylor, his big road win came when the Bears were playing at Texas in 2010. Griffin said that victory meant everything to him because he beat a team that didn’t want him. “Every kid that grows up in Texas wants to play at Texas,” he said. “So I was a military kid, moved around a bunch, but I was in Texas from first grade all the way through 12th and really obviously through college because I went to Baylor. But to go somewhere that didn’t offer you a scholarship as a quarterback and beat them on their home turf in front of their home fans who didn’t think you had a chance to come away with a victory, no matter what your record was or how bad they thought their team was. They just didn’t think that Baylor would come in and beat them.”
Griffin continued: “So that was a fun environment. 100,000 people all wearing burnt orange, throwing up the hook’em horns and by the end of it, pure silence. So there’s no other feeling like that in the world. There’s a difference in playing at home when everything you do if it’s a two-yard completion, it gets a cheer. But when you’re playing on the road and you can actually hear the footsteps because you can hear a pin drop in the stadium, it’s that quiet. There’s no other feeling like that.”
Along with the survey, Goodyear has launched the Road Tested Sweepstakes where fans can share their opinions on the toughest road environments for a chance to win tickets to the College Football Playoff National Championship and a tailgate experience in the Goodyear EathRoamer. Also, Griffin will be starring in Goodyear’s Road Tested video which will launch on Oct. 14.
“I was blessed enough to have Goodyear really to document a road-tested victory by us at Baylor in 2010 there at Texas Memorial, Griffin stated. “So I’m really excited about that. I think that’s going to be extremely cool. But the other part of this that’s really awesome is that Goodyear’s also going to allow the fans to have their voices heard.”
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