Teammates frustrated with Haynesworth mess
ASHBURN – Phillip Daniels paused, his eyes starting to water and his words tough to find. At the end of a nearly 10-minute brutally honest conversation about Albert Haynesworth, Daniels came to a bottom line and a realization. He’s friends with Haynesworth. He’s also 37 and desperate for a title.
“I’ve been through 15 seasons and I ain’t won [anything],” the Redskins defensive end said before pausing for eight seconds. “So what I’m saying is, if I can come out and do this, don’t tell me you can’t do it …”
He paused again. More water, more lumps in his throat. Five seconds later he continued.
“I want every guy on this team to do well,” he said. “If you ain’t all in, you don’t need to be here.”
And that’s the question: Will Haynesworth be here for the rest of the season? Coach Mike Shanahan would not address the Haynesworth situation until Wednesday. He wants to meet with Haynesworth first.
”It’s fair for me to talk to him before I talk to you,” Shanahan said.
The Redskins could opt to release him this week. They could hang onto him until the offseason and then trade or cut him. They also can deactivate him for each of the next four games.
Whatever they do, the locker room appears firmly behind the organization and Shanahan.
”He’s formulating to get his type of guys, the guys that he knows he can win with,” linebacker London Fletcher said. ”That’s the nature of the business. You’re either part of the problem or you’re part of the solution, and you just hope to be part of the solution.”
Haynesworth has been a constant topic since Shanahan took over. The coaching staff felt he underachieved last year and were determined to wring more out of his talent. But he balked at playing in the 3-4 and skipped the offseason workouts. He struggled to complete the conditioning test when he reported to camp and he’s now been inactive for four games — once for an ankle injury, two times while dealing with his half-brother’s death and then Sunday.
“Guys feel the same way, man,” Daniels said. ”I’m a guy that I’m going to tell you the truth, and I’m going to tell you how it is. I’m not going to hide behind anything. I would love for things to work out with him. If he put everything he had into football — I’m talking about the workout part of it, the weight room, just the learning the game, the studying of the game — he would be no doubt the NFL player of the year.”
Daniels said Haynesworth needs to understand who is counting on him.
“Not the coaches, not the organization, but your teammates are counting on you,” Daniels said. “That’s the part of the game that slipped by.”
Daniels said he had spoken with some of Haynesworth’s former teammates in Tennessee, such as Randall Godfrey and Joe Salave’a — an ex-Redskin. Haynesworth’s behavior in Washington mirrors what Daniels said they told him happened in Tennessee.
“Your DNA follows you,” Daniels said. “I saw things yesterday that I was disappointed in. … Things were going good for a moment. Things were going great. He was out there playing and doing well. It’s always something else.”
