There may not be a team in the NFL with a bigger—and more expensive—headache than the one that the Washington Redskins have with defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. The Redskins signed Haynesworth to a record $100 million contract before the 2009 season which included $41 million in guaranteed money. Haynesworth will earn a guaranteed $3.6 million in 2010 and $5.4 million in 2011. He’s already collected around $32 million of the contract amount. He played in only 12 games last season, and has been at odds with new coach Mike Shanahan since before training camp for several reasons. Every indication is that Washington is now trying to cut their losses and trade Haynesworth but on Wednesday head coach Mike Shanahan insisted that he’d be with the team at least through their Sunday night regular season opener against the Dallas Cowboys.
The biggest issue between Haynesworth and the team has been his abysmal physical condition—he reported to camp in terrible shape and hasn’t show much focus or intensity in trying to correct that situation. Compounding the problem is an earlier decision by Haynesworth to skip the offseason conditioning program. About this time he also asked for a trade, claiming he didn’t want to play in a 3-4 defense. He did all this less than two months after pocketing a $21 million signing bonus.
Despite rumors of a trade deal with Tennessee being in the works, Shanahan said that Haynesworth would be with the team for the regular season opener:
“Albert will be with us this week. For sure.”
He deflected questions about any pending trades with this comment:
“If he wasn’t here, I think you’d call me a liar, wouldn’t you? And you’d have the right to do that. Okay?”
Shanahan also gave a brief characterization of his strained relationship with Haynesworth:
“You might not think we ever communicate, but we do sometimes. Even though the sources have not talked about us communicating.”
His teammates have been mixed in their reaction to the Haynesworth situation. Linebacker Brian Orakpo said it’s been a distraction:
“It’s very distracting, but we try not to let it get to us. Because we’re tired of talking about it, Albert’s tired of talking about it, Shanahan’s tired of talking about it. Everybody is. We want to move on to be a normal team in this league and not worry about individualism. …We got a big game coming up and we can’t be worrying about No. 92 right now and all this speculation.”
The Redskins’ new starting quarterback Donovan McNabb, on the other hand, took to the airwaves to give this vote of support to Haynesworth during a radio interview:
“Albert is a guy that’s one of our brothers in the locker room, and we want to protect him and make sure that he’s taken care of and he’s fine. Albert is a guy who understands now, he understands that, ‘Hey, I’ve got to put the time and effort in to get an opportunity to show what I can do.’ And he knows what he can do.
“We can’t win without Albert. He plays a major part on our defense, and everyone knows that. It’s just unfortunate what’s been going on and how everything has transpired, but that’s the game of football, and I think he’ll handle it the right way. … I think he’ll be here. I hope he’ll be here. … As a player, you would want Albert to be here.”
Shanahan would not say if Haynesworth would start or how much playing time he’d see. It’s doubtful that he’ll see much, if any, action with trade talks ongoing. Washington is a +3’ home underdog to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, with the total set at 40’.
