His Point Made, Shanahan Should Welcome Haynesworth Back

ASHBURN, Va. -- On the far side of the Redskins' second practice field, just about into the woods, a coach in a white t-shirt put a lone player in a long-sleeve gray t-shirt through the paces. Every now and then, the coach stopped to point out something to the player, and the player gestured back as if to be sure he understood what was being asked of him. Then they'd go at it again.

They were the last coach and player on any of the practice fields late Friday afternoon for Washington's NFL team. And by the time the player lumbered across the field, up a long path and into the clubhouse, with a throng of media and team staff in his wake, his shirt was darkened by his sweat and his head and face was awash in it.

The player was Albert Haynesworth, pro football's highest-paid defensive player and, more importantly, it's newest poster image for prima-donna behavior, thanks to the obstinacy and arrogance he displayed in the spring by refusing to participate in his new coach Mike Shanahan's offseason practice program, or accept his new role in a new defensive scheme.

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Haynesworth was left to work out only with a coach because he hadn't passed Shanahan's conditioning test that became a prerequisite after he missed the spring practices. He was the lone Washington player forced to do so, which made many observers wonder if he is simply being made a whipping post.

"I don't really give a s**t," Haynesworth muttered to a reporter's query as he trudged walked into the clubhouse.

Haynesworth lied. But it was all he could do to shore up his manhood in what is amounting to a public emasculation he is suffering.

After all, if Haynesworth really didn't care, he wouldn't have showed up at camp 35 pounds lighter than the weight he played at last year, which often left him jogging off the field and dropping to one knee winded.

If Haynesworth really didn't care, he wouldn't have cleared the air with some of his teammates, like another veteran defensive lineman, Phillip Daniels, who openly criticized him in May when he was conspicuously absent at team workouts.

Shanahan needs Haynesworth and Haynesworth needs to make his stop in Washington, however long it turns out to be, work.If the $100-million man, who arrived at his employer's headquarters this week in the newest Rolls Royce (the one with the retracting hood emblem), really didn't care, he wouldn't be wearing himself out, according to Daniels, in his one-on-one practices and in the weight room.

And if Haynesworth's new coach, with the streak of taskmaster and the skins on the wall to support it, didn't want him, he'd be gone by now. Shanahan would've demanded his new boss, Daniel Snyder, who is desperately trying to be a successful pro sports owner, take the financial hit and dump Haynesworth on whomever would take him and write off the record contract as another stupid personnel investment. Haynesworth, after all, didn't demand the money Snyder gave him. He just took it. Snyder created this scenario.

But Shanahan needs Haynesworth and Haynesworth needs to make his stop in Washington, however long it turns out to be, work.

Shanahan didn't just come to Washington for the money Snyder so easily throws around. He came here to win one more title, an accomplishment that would cement a place for him in his sport's shrine in Canton.

And if Haynesworth, in the least, wants a change of venue, he has to perform here to prove to a potential suitor that his immense talent outweighs his sometimes immature attitude.

It doesn't get much more symbiotic than this.



Share "They got to get this out of the way," Daniels told me Friday of Haynesworth's and Shanahan's butting of egos and will. "He's [Haynesworth] in the meeting room. He's here now. He's fine. There's no offseason trade to talk about. Everybody [in the locker room] is cool.

"Albert knows it's about business. We wanted him to be here with the team and help us win, and he is."

All that is left to let Haynesworth back into the fold is for him to pass Shanahan's conditioning test that, until he does, makes it sound as if Haynesworth is out of shape and in no condition to play. That is the furthest thing from the truth in all of this.

"His body is night and day different from a year ago," Daniels marveled.

The spare-truck tire that made up Haynesworth's abs last year is gone. His face isn't as round.

"That doesn't look like a defensive tackle over there," a Washington official remarked looking across the two fields to Haynesworth's individual workout.

Haynesworth looked like the sleeker defensive lineman Shanahan's 3-4 defense would prefer him to be. Still, Haynesworth is a 300-plus pound man.

Daniels said the test Shanahan is demanding Haynesworth to pass, doing 300-yard stop-and-start runs while changing direction, isn't easy for a man so big. He noted that Baltimore's second-round draft pick Terrence Cody failed his first attempt this week.

"I've seen people in shape who can't do this test," Daniels testified.

It is something Shanahan might want to consider.

Daniels said he doesn't think Haynesworth is far from passing the test. The team's strength and conditioning coach, who conducts the test, said Friday morning that he doesn't think so, either.

The bigger question may be when and how Shanahan accepts Haynesworth back into the fold, which he absolutely must do. The longer Shanahan allows the Haynesworth show to play out, the more chance there is that it becomes a divisive issue on a team that had numerous pages and agendas last season. A few players will side with their new coach, but many will sympathize with the player so good with Tennessee the year before he arrived in Washington that he was talked about as a possible MVP of the league.

"Coach Shanahan and his staff probably know when [enough is enough] themselves," Daniels said.

Haynesworth did when he finally showed up this week having shed the pounds he promised. If the players who dismissed him just months ago have taken him back, the time has come for the coach to do the same.