The Sad Tale of Albert Haynesworth

Over the past several days months, we have seen a player act like a little kid - whining his way to get what he wants. Yes, I am talking about that Albert Haynesworth. During the offseason of 2009, the Redskins and owner Daniel Snyder, being their normal selves, spent over $100 million to pry him from the Tennessee Titans. As usual, the veteran FA's (Free-Agents) that the Redskins bring in usually disappoint.

We saw lots of this when he was with the Titans

Reason is that, when a player is in a contract year (a la Haynesworth in 2008), they tend to play beyond expectations that year. Once they get paid the big $$$, they tend to regress the following year. What made the past season a lot worse on the defensive side is that Haynesworth would wear himself out on first and second down and go to the sidelines because of a "major injury" (basically, be was fatigued and had little stamina) and would miss the important down - third down. And this did not happen one or twice. This scene occurred frequently - pissing off the fans at the game and watching the game on TV.

But we saw a lot of this when he was with the Redskins
(Courtesy of Yahoo!)

In the offseason, he was to get in game shape with the new regime coming in (New General Manager Bruce Adams and new Head Coach Mike Shanahan) for the 2010 season and beyond. Unfortunately, Haynesworth did NOT report to the voluntary OTA's (Organized Team Activities) - where players would unite as a whole from April - July (the down time in the NFL year) and form a cohesive unit and learn the X's and O's from the new coaches - even though he took the $21 million saying he'll stay with the team.

His main complaint was that he was to be the standard nose tackle in a 3-4 defense - a transition from the 4-3 defense in 2009- that he did not like. Therefore, as childish as it may seem, he boycotted the OTA's until an agreement was made. Jim Haslett, the former New Orleans Saints and St. Louis Rams head coach, was signed as part of the new regime to become the current defensive coordinator - whose defenses rely on stripping the ball and scoring TD's. What Haynesworth didn't realize, however, is that he is not solely the NT. In Haslett's fluid system, defensive tackles and nose tackles can become defensive ends and vice-versa.

What made the situation worse during the offseason was that former Redskins (i.e. LaVar Arrington) and current teammates both ripped him into shreads, mainly because he was a me-first type of player.


 If you read here, Fletcher really believes Big Al is a selfish player



Because of his boycott and his not-so-great conditioning - see here and here - Haynesworth will be participating on the second team to try and get up-to-speed with Shanny's system.

Just because Haynesworth has failed the conditioning test to get into training camp twice does NOT mean Shanny is being very harsh on him - other, more heavier players (i.e. 350 lb. Maake Kemoeatu, 365 lb. Howard Green and  360 lb. Anthony Bryant) all completed the test on their first try. (btw, Haynesworth is 310 - was originally 350, but lost 40 lbs. in the offseason). Shanny is just being the strict disciplinarian, believing that no one player on this team is above the law - what a great head coach should do after the debacle, the circus of Jim Zorn's mess in 2009.