RGIII at the mall: Just another guy talking video games

Some days, it's just business as usual.

But that wasn't the case for GameStop employee Andrew Atkinson on Thursday. At close to 1:30 p.m., Atkinson had a visit from someone who was far from the average customer — Washington Redskins' quarterback Robert Griffin III.

The third-year signal caller paid a visit to the store located in the Centre at Salisbury and spent close to a half-hour chatting with Atkinson, mostly about Griffin's video game preferences.

"He came in and I greeted him like a normal customer and I immediately recognized the face and I didn't want to be that guy who went 'Are you RG3?,' and him say no and me look stupid," Atkinson said. "So talked with my store manager and said 'I think that's RG3.' So he took a look and he said, 'I think you're right.'

"So then, he actually started talking to me about video games and so we're just talking about 'Diablo,' 'Destiny,' and PS4 and X-Box One, all that cool stuff, and he told me he was a big video game nerd and that he has both of the next-gen systems. And so me and him started talking for a good half hour about video games and he told me he was RG3 and I asked him what he was doing down here, and he said he was relaxing and that it was his bye week and he was just chilling down here just trying to find out what video game he wanted next."

Washington is 3-6 this season. Griffin was injured in September and only returned last Sunday as Washington lost to Minnesota. They are off this weekend on their bye week before resuming their 2014 campaign.

Atkinson said the quarterback was very gracious and polite during their interaction. Eventually, he was swarmed by fans who were interested in getting autographs and pictures with Griffin. Atkinson even got his own photo with Griffin.

Throughout his visit to the mall, Griffin would pose for pictures for fellow Redskins fans as well non-fans.

Samantha Thomas, an employee at Lids, said she had first heard the rumors about Griffin being in the mall, but wasn't able to substantiate it until around 2 p.m. When she first heard the news, she thought it was in jest.

"I said 'Are you serious? RG3 in this mall?' and then I pulled up a picture and I showed the customer, and they said 'he's here,' so I just kind of waited until I saw him," Thomas said. "First, I was like 'I really hope he comes over here to the store.' He didn't come in my store, but he did come by and he was really nice and stopped and he came and took some pictures and autographs for everybody. I'm not a Redskins' fan, but it's still kind of exciting to see a celebrity in town."

Thomas, who is a Philadelphia Eagles fan, said a man came in to buy a Redskins hat that RG3 would sign for him.

Following his time at the mall, RG3 and his wife dined at the nearby Olive Garden restaurant, where other fans waited to get a glimpse of him. A restaurant employee, who declined to be named, said she did not know Griffin was there until he had already sat down.

"I heard people talk about a football player, and then I heard 'RG3' and I went over there, and asked for an autograph and asked to take a picture and he said sure. He was nice as can be," the employee said. "Him and his wife were having a late lunch. People tried to flock the front lobby and there were a couple of adults with a whole bunch of kids who said they were hunting for him then they saw him in the mall earlier and they figured out he came here. They waited out front and they tried to block his car off when he tried to leave. Other than that, it was pretty quiet. For RG3 to be at the 'Slower Lower' Olive Garden is the most excitement we've had here in years."

Atkinson, the GameStop employee who is a Philadelphia Eagles fan, said the experience was a memorable one.

"It was shocking because I didn't expect him to be here of course and it took me a good 10 minutes to confirm it was him," he said. "I thought it was cool that he was just like all of us and he played video game systems the way we do and he was chill."

eholland@dmg.gannett.com

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