Thou Doth Protest Too Much

The other day I was watching an interview on ESPN with Washington Redskins' defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, where he was discussing his situation with the team. For those of you who aren't big NFL fans I'll give you the quick synopsis: two years ago when Albert was a free agent the Redskins jumped at the chance to give him the richest contract in NFL history for a defensive player (a contract which I said at the time was a bad idea because it was clearly a case of a guy only playing well in a contract year and not really being worth nearly that much money). Haynesworth had an alright season but the team as a whole didn't play well, so following the season the Redskins fired their coach Jim Zorn and brought in a new head coach, Mike Shanahan. Shanahan's first declaration was that the team from be switching to a 3-4 defense (three defensive lineman and four linebackers) instead of playing the 4-3 (four defensive lineman and only three linebackers) that they had played under Zorn. While this doesn't sound like a big deal, playing a 3-4 versus a 4-3 puts a lot more pressure and responsibility on the defensive tackle, who is asked to absorb more hits. Haynesworth was not interested in that kind of responsibility or taking that much punishment, no matter how large of a contract he had signed.

Because he was unhappy with this change Haynesworth avoided any team activities during the offseason in an effort to force a trade, which annoyed a lot of his teammates and his coaches. Haynesworth got a large signing bonus check during the offseason and the feeling was that if he was going to take the team's money then he should be around to do the work during the offseason. Now, in Haynesworth's defense, when he was a free agent he had specifically avoided even visiting teams that played the 3-4; he wasn't interested in playing in that system and didn't even want to hear their contract offers. On the other hand, if you're being paid a hundred million dollars then you should be willing to accept some changes. When Haynesworth finally did show up for training camp Shanahan made him run through a conditioning drill alone, saying that no one else had to run because the rest of the team had all been there for all the team workouts. It was a 300-yard spring drill, which is funny because defensive tackles don't run 300 yards in a game and this was seen as Shanahan trying to show Haynesworth who was boss. But Haynesworth failed the test and then begged out of taking it again, claiming he had a sore knee. Shanahan then countered by playing Haynesworth sparingly during the preseason, keeping him out there with the fourth stringers and has been inconsistent with his playing time during the first three weeks of the regular season.

All signs point to this ending badly, but not quickly. Which is why Albert went on a PR campaign this week and told his side of the story in an extended interview with ESPN where he told the interviewer that this wasn't his fault and that, "I'm a good person." Here's the problem with that: whenever anyone goes out of their way to tell people that they are a good person, I automatically assume that they are just the opposite. You know who never has to try to convince people that they are a nice person? Nice people. They show it through their actions and let everyone reach that conclusion on their own. Taking a large check that was given to you in good faith, knowing full well the implications, but then staging a mini-holdout and demanding a trade are not the actions of a good person. The seem more like the actions of someone who thinks that they should always get their way and are going to pout if they don't. Ironically, this interview probably had the opposite effect from what Haynesworth was hoping for because people had begun to see him as a sympathetic figure and feel as though the Redskins were picking on him. This might undo all the sympathy he has built up and instead he's coming across as a guy who is trying to convince everyone that this situation is not his fault. Someone needs to pull him aside and remind him that sometimes shutting up and letting people come to their own conclusions is the most compelling argument you can make.