Albert Haynesworth: Signing with Redskins was ‘worst mistake of my life’
Chris Cooley made headlines earlier this week by blasting his former Washington Redskins teammate Albert Haynesworth and claiming Haynesworth only signed with the team to collect his guaranteed money and try to be released. As you might expect, Haynesworth remembers things much, much differently.
Haynesworth, who inked a $100 million contract with the Redskins in 2009, spent just two seasons with the team. After he was done responding to Cooley by saying he “sounds as stupid as he looks” and is nothing more than a self promoter, Haynesworth took aim at the Redskins organization and head coach Mike Shanahan during an interview with Tennessee Sports Radio.
“I don’t want the Redskins fans to be mad, but that organization is completely different than the Titans,” Haynesworth said, via DC Sports Bog. “Yeah, they have a long history of being in the NFL, supposedly being one of the top teams. I mean, they’ve got a lot of Hall of Famers from there that I’ve met and that I liked, and liked to learn from. But the current day, I’m not gonna say it’s Dan’s fault — Dan Snyder, I’m not gonna say it’s his fault — but it ain’t really about football, it’s about self-promotion.
“It was ridiculous. I’ve never seen that, and I wasn’t used to that. The whole recruiting thing from the beginning – when I signed that deal – which to me was the worst mistake in my life. You could say yeah I got paid a lot of money — I don’t really care about the money. If I knew it was gonna be like that, I never would have went. I never would have went. I guarantee.”
Haynesworth said he wanted to be a Hall of Famer and that it wasn’t about the money, contrary to what Cooley believes. He said he was told the Redskins would be running a similar defense to the one he dominated with the Titans, but they went back on their word and never did anything of the sort. He also said Shanahan has benefitted from John Elway’s success.
“He hasn’t won a playoff game since Elway retired,” Haynesworth said. “Great coach. Yeah. I mean, that’s what he came in, the very first meeting, he came in saying I’m a great coach, I know how to win, I’ve won 25 championships. I’m like, 25 championships? Then I go back and look, and I was like you haven’t won a freaking playoff game since Elway retired. How come Elway comes back after Shanahan gets fired? Kind of weird. I mean, the guy is all me me me. Sorry to say that.”
There was plenty more in the transcription provided by DC Sports Bog, and it’s all worth reading. It comes as no surprise that Cooley and Haynesworth remember the past differently. In some ways, I’m sure they’re both right about what happened during the Haynesworth era. Whatever the case, we can all agree it was a massive failure.
