Albert Haynesworth has a lot of faults, but he isn’t entirely to blame for the fiasco that is going on in Washington. Mike Shanahan from the beginning made a bad situation worse, by his handling of Haynesworth.
Like it or not Daniel Synder gave Haynesworth 100 billion trillion dollars and as the head coach Shanahan’s job is to figure out a way to make it work.
When Haynesworth is in the right mind frame, he is a beast, but because of the constant bickering and mind games his play when allowed on the field has been average at best.
Haynesworth was deactivated for the Giants game because according to him he was two minutes late to a meeting, Shanahan claims that he didn’t like the way Haynesworth practice. It seems petty on Shanahan’s part unless there is another part of the story we are missing.
Now comes word the Redskins may cut ties with him immediately.
Chris Russell of ESPN 980 in Washington (Dan Snyder’s station) reports that the team is giving “serious consideration” to releasing Haynesworth this week. Russell’s team source says the move is “75% likely.”
A release would be an appropriate ending to the Haynesworth-Mike Shanahan marriage. It would essentially be an admittance that the team badly mismanaged the situation all year. They held on to Haynesworth too long, paid him too much, and won’t get a draft pick in return.
If this was to happen the Redskins would have paid Haynesworth almost 40 million dollars for less that two years of service and more importantly for Haynesworth if he passed through waivers he would be able to latch on with a playoff team and be highly motivated to stick it to the Redskins.
Daniel Synder really knows how to run a franchise.