Albert Haynesworth isn’t listening to his haters, and took to the radio Wednesday to clear up a few misconceptions about his stint in Washington.
Haynesworth was a guest on Tennessee Sports Radio to give his side of the story after being ripped by former teammate Chris Cooley.
Haynesworth said the real problem in Washington was that he played with a dysfunctional franchise. “Albert believes that just like he and Donovan McNabb had to learn, some day Griffin III will also learn that Shanahan isn’t a coach that players can trust.”
“I mean, it’s like, you can’t win with that team,” Haynesworth said, via Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post. “And you think it was just me? I mean, look how he did Donovan. See what’s going on with RGIII. I met RGIII. He seemed like an extremely nice guy that’s willing to work. Now he’s gonna learn – I mean, I hate to say he’s gonna learn — about Shanahan, how he’s conniving and everything like that, where he’s not gonna help him out, it’s all about him.”
“They’re gonna run RGIII into the ground,” Haynesworth said. “They almost really hampered his career last year with the knee injury, putting him back in there. I mean, I think they ought to cut ties, let it go. . . . I don’t think it’s gonna work out. They’re always gonna try to blame RGIII for something. It’s never gonna be the head coach’s fault.”
Haynesworth didn’t stop their either, he unloaded on Shanahan some more.
“The first day I get to Washington, that morning before, they’re like yeah, we’re gonna design our defense just like Tennessee, because we want you to let loose,” Haynesworth said, mentioning the proposed personnel moves. “So I was like ok, that’s great. And then the very first practice, we started doing all this different stuff that we hadn’t done. After that practice, I asked the D coordinator, hey, do you know are we gonna do some of [the Tennessee] stuff? And the guy was like no, we’re not doing none of that.
“I was like, why are you gonna lie to me? I hate to be lied to. I’m gonna tell you the truth just like it is, if it’s good or bad. So I expect people to do the same thing to me. And they just basically lied to me, tell me to come there just to get me there and be one of their little showcases or whatever, like trophies on their wall or something. Then, after that year of playing and not doing ANYTHING like we did in Tennessee…then we get Shanahan in there, aka Red Lobster, as Fred Smoot says. He comes in and completely changes the defense to a 3-4, where I’m reading. I’m not doing things that I normally do — exploding and shooting the gaps and creating havoc – I’m staying on the line, going left and right. Not even going forward.