LANDOVER, Md. – The franchise returned in street clothes, not a knee brace.

And if you ever wanted to pinpoint the difference since the adults took over the Washington Commanders, with a clear chain of command that everyone respects, look at how Washington's new brain trust handled Jayden Daniels' rib injury in the first quarter of the 40 -7 Washington loss to the hapless Carolina Panthers. And compare it to how a previous regime allowed its injured franchise quarterback Robert Griffin III to march seemingly independently onto the football field in a 2012 playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks – a decision that led to disastrous results.

Daniels, the rookie phenom, was injured Sunday on Washington's first offensive attack. Perhaps it came on his first play, a read option that he executed to the right and down the field for 46 yards. But he tried to stiff Panthers safety Lonnie Johnson Jr., who was slightly behind him, and fell awkwardly as Johnson tackled him. Or it could have happened to another goalie later in the trip. But after a swing pass to running back Austin Ekeler set up a field goal by Austin Seibert, Daniels' day was over. It wasn't up to him to decide.

Before Washington's next offensive possession, Daniels went to the blue medical tent. Then, after Emmanuel Forbes' interception late in the first quarter, Daniels was ready to get back in the game. He came out of the tent and got his helmet. He ran back onto the field. And then…he was stopped. He returned to the bench. He banged his helmet. He was escorted from the field to the Washington locker room.

He didn't return. Well, not in uniform; After halftime, he returned to the sidelines in street clothes and waved to the crowd.

“It was the harder right, the easier wrong,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said of removing the injured Jayden Daniels. (Amber Searls/Imagn Images)

“This is from a medical perspective,” Dan Quinn said afterwards.

“Al (Bellamy, Washington's head athletic trainer), the team doctors,” Quinn said. “They were very clear in their communication. Warmed him up – he threw something. We took him to the tent. The next step is for us to take him in and take pictures there and he will take a few more pictures (Monday). That's the process it goes through. The good news, it was really clear that it was happening. We had a few guys. He went down, (tackle) Brandon Coleman went down (with a concussion). Dyami (Brown) was able to come back (from an ankle injury). This process, like calling a play, is really important.”

That meant Bellamy, the longtime athletic trainer on his second tour with the team, as well as team doctor Christopher Annunziata and Tim McGrath, the team's senior director of player health and performance, watched Daniels throw. Then they got the picture – it's unknown at the moment how detailed it was – with Daniels in the locker room. Then they gave general manager Adam Peters and Quinn their recommendation: Daniels should sit out the rest of this matter. They were not overruled by Josh Harris or his ownership group, nor by Quinn and his coaches.

It also happened a week ago when Brian Robinson was ruled out of the Baltimore game – a game he really wanted to play in – because of a knee injury. It was a big moment for him and his team to prove that things are really different this season. But Robinson didn't get dressed.

“It was the more difficult right,” Quinn said, “versus the easier wrong.”

In sports, and especially football, a player returns to the field every time he likes it with no bones sticking out of his skin. That is their ethos. But someone has to say no. Even if it's uncomfortable. Particularly when it's uncomfortable and the stakes are highest.

Of course we celebrate people like Ronnie Lott for the seemingly crazy decision to have a piece of his finger cut off so he could return to action. Celebrating Willis Reed as he limped back to the floor before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden. We remember Curt Schilling's bloody sock and Michael Jordan's flu/food poisoning game and Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali beating the humanity out of each other in their three epic fights.

But sometimes someone has to step in and say no.

“Obviously there’s a lot of people that want Jayden out there,” tight end Zach Ertz said.

“But people are primarily concerned with Jayden as a person. I think it's a testament to the people who run this operation that they don't just see us as employee number 5 or employee 86, but that they care about us as people, as individuals. Jayden's long-term health is of the utmost importance to everyone in this building. And so they understand that Jayden will do whatever it takes to get out there. I think everyone sees his competitive spirit and how much he loves being outside with his boys. And I can't say whether he could have gone or not. But I think from the ground up it was a given that he was finished. And I think it’s a testament to the people who are running this thing.”

This is a decision that cannot be made freelance. And especially when it comes to the player having more responsibility than anyone else, with all due respect to the other players in the locker room, not only for Washington's 5-2 start, but for the feeling that this franchise is finally From personal responsibility to management to coaching the players and development in the right direction.

Washington head coach Mike Shanahan speaks with quarterback Robert Griffin III during the 2013 NFC Wild Card Round playoff game against the Seahawks. (Toni L. Sandys / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

This did not happen on January 6, 2013.

Griffin, who had already torn his right ACL while attending Baylor, had suffered a sprained lateral collateral ligament in his right knee against the Ravens a month earlier, near the end of the regular season, when Baltimore's massive nose tackle Haloti Ngata fell on his leg after a Griffin run. Kirk Cousins ​​entered the game for one play, after which Griffin returned for a few plays before finally retiring from the game.

Cousins ​​led Washington to an overtime victory over the Ravens and then started the following week in Cleveland. But Griffin returned to play the final two games of the regular season, including the then-Redskins' 28-18 victory over Dallas in the regular-season finale, securing a playoff spot. So the following weekend, Griffin was behind in the wild card round against Seattle.

Griffin, clearly limited, appeared to aggravate the sprained LCL in the first quarter against Seattle. But after a short break on the sidelines, he came back into the game. Nobody stopped him. Coach Mike Shanahan, who had more authority in this city at the time than any other man except the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, let Griffin back onto the field. So does Dr. James Andrews, the celebrated surgeon, told USA Today the week of the game that he wasn't sure whether Griffin would be healthy enough to get back on the field and play.

More importantly, Andrews said he never gave Griffin permission to return to the Baltimore game, which Shanahan said the doctor did.

But against Seattle, both the coach, who made $7 million a year and had complete control of the franchise, and the renowned doctor stood and watched as the franchise's QB went back on the field and played until his knee Finally gave in Late in the game, Griffin suffered a complete cruciate ligament tear.

“You respect authority and I respect coach Shanahan,” Griffin said after the game. “But at the same time, sometimes you have to be a man. It was impossible for me to get out of that game.”

Shanahan said he would probably reconsider himself. But he also said, “I promise you, if we had thought it had something to do with Robert's career and his injury and he shouldn't be in there, we would have taken him out.”

I don't know as much about football as Shanahan. But I know that knee injuries have a lot to do with a quarterback's career. Especially one whose career began with the electric launch of RGIII. Of course, the following season, his knee injury led to All In For Week 1, all the nonsense that came with it, and everything that went wrong between Griffin and Shanahan – and the franchise and its star QB went into the woodchips.

However, a rib injury is not as serious as a knee injury. And besides, this time on Sunday, Washington had the advantage of playing… well, the consistently terrible Panthers. How they won a game this season is beyond me. It's no mystery to me at all that this is what the Commanders have looked like to the rest of the league for most of the last two-plus decades. There are many reasons this isn't the case, but Daniels is one of the most important.

Marcus Mariota replaced Daniels at quarterback and performed quite well. He led Washington on six scoring drives that shut out the Panthers, prompting another early exit from this suddenly spoiled fan base on the day the franchise retired the Hall of Fame cornerback with the jersey the number 28 of Darrell Green. It was a very good day on the field for this very fascinating and interesting team.

But the most important work was done on the sidelines, as an organization rescued its star quarterback from himself.

(Top photo of Jayden Daniels leaving the field after suffering an injury against the Panthers: Daniel Kucin Jr. / Associated Press)