Albert Haynesworth fined by NFL
Marching down on ‘Fines Avenue’, the league has hit Washington Redskins’ defensive lineman with $7,500 fine. Haynesworth might have gotten off easy. The hit on J’Marcus Webb was expected to earn Haynesworth a much greater fine.
The hit in question came during the Redskins vs. Chicago Bears game on Sunday. Redskins’ cornerback, DeAngello Hall had just intercepted Bears' quarterback, Jay Cutler and was making his 92 yard dash to the end zone for touchdown. Webb was trailing Hall
about 10 yards behind him. There were two other Bears who were closer to Hall than Webb was. Haynesworth was too far from both of them so he decided instead that he was going to take out Webb. He charged into Webb from his right without and sent him tumbling
out of bounds.
Haynesworth was obviously going to be fined for that. The rules prohibit diving, cutting or throwing the body against any player who is out of play or wouldn’t reasonably be able to anticipate any contact. Webb wasn't at all expecting to be crashed into
while he was so far behind Hall. It should be noted that Haynesworth did not draw a flag for the play. Webb though certainly thought that he should have and confronted Haynesworth. That confrontation cost him a personal foul. The hit wasn’t severe neither
was it helmet-to-helmet or Haynesworth wouldn’t have gotten off with just a $7,500 fine. It was a perfectly legal shoulder-to-chest hit but on a player that might be considered out of play at the time.
Washington’s coach, Mike Shanahan had hinted that he would speak on Haynesworth's behalf to the NFL if the league decided to put a fine on him. Shanahan was in fact quite pleased with how Haynesworth played on Sunday. “I liked the effort”, said Shanahan.
“We get everybody working downfield like that, you got a chance for good things to happen”, he added.
Shanahan admitted that he hadn’t reviewed the play in more detail to see if it was helmet to helmet. He stated that if a player made contact with another player 25 yards downfield than that would be unacceptable, but at around 10 or maybe 12 yards, a player
could make contact with another if there is a reasonable chance that a play could be made by him. "League officials would make that judgement", Shanahan maintained. The league has judged and it has found that Webb was indeed out of play and Haynesworth was
wrong to take him down.
Webb was too far behind DeAngelo Hall and had little chance of actually catching up to him but he was running after Hall tried to do just that. Hall could have fallen, lost his footing, stumbled a bit, or for any one of a countless reasons, could have slowed
down enough so that Webb could get to him.
It’s settled now. There is no indication that Haynesworth would appeal the decision or that he would stop making such hits. The coach doesn’t want him to stop, neither do the fans and Haynesworth himself certainly doesn’t want to. It were hits like these
that got him his $100 million contract. A few thousand dollars in fine isn’t going to deter him.
The hit wasn’t necessary but Haynesworth hasn’t been doing too well in Washington. He had been waiting to make an impact and Sunday was his day. The Redskins tried to put him in the 3-4 defence but he just didn’t fit. In the offseason, the change was made
and Haynesworth protested strongly. He admitted that he wasn’t good enough to be on the 3-4 defence compared to some of the other guys on Washington’s roster. He has played his entire career as a 4-3 tackle and that is what he is good at.
So, Haynesworth was taken off the 3-4 line. He would be called in as a pass rusher or during plays when Washington uses nickel defence. Haynesworth said that if they let him do what he is good at, they would see a lot more production out of him and that
has happened. Haynesworth produced his first sack of this season in the same game he had a run-in with J’Marcus Webb.
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