Albert Haynesworth has been a frequent punching bag here at LBS. The Redskins defensive tackle missed the team’s off-season workouts, failed the team’s conditioning test, and said the organization was making him look badly. Haynesworth brought the criticism upon himself when he refused to be a team player and show up for off-season workouts, cementing his place on coach Mike Shanahan’s bad side. As a result, Haynesworth has been playing with backups during the preseason and apparently his play has been poor.
Pro Football Talk passes along a story from the Washington Post quoting Redskins sources saying Haynesworth’s play in the preseason finale Thursday was “awful.” Post reporter Jason Reid says “It often appeared [Haynesworth] gave little effort … On the few occasions he did play hard, the two sources said, Haynesworth failed to adhere to the principles of the new 3-4 scheme.”
The coaches were so displeased with Haynesworth’s effort that he hardly played during practice on Saturday and his status for Sunday’s season opener is now in question. As much nonsense that went on this off-season, I figured things would sort themselves out by the regular season. Looks like that won’t be happening and that’s not good for either side. The Redskins need Haynesworth at his best to win some games, and Haynesworth needs to play better to make himself more desirable in a trade. What a messy, disappointing situation all the way around. You wish Albert would stick it out and just play hard. What a joke.
Sources:
Albert Haynesworth’s disappointing performance in Washington Redskins’ preseason finale affects his status for opener [Washington Post]
Redskins anonymously rip Albert Haynesworth’s effort [Pro Football Talk]
