Coach Mike Shanahan and defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth trade verbal blows
Players and coaches don’t always get along in professional sports. This is certainly the case in the NFL as of lately as seen with Albert Haynesworth and Redskins’ head coach Mike Shanahan, or Brett Favre and Vikings’ head coach Brad Childress. It could be a result of personalities or egos clashing. It could be concerning play calling. Or it could simply be that players such as Haynesworth are spoiled and want special treatment.
"Albert has gotten away in the past with playing without practicing," Shanahan said. "That will not happen under this regime. If he's going to play, he's going to practice, and that is the same with every player here. The days of him playing without practicing are over."
Shanahan’s comments were a direct response to Haynesworth who lashed out at him following Saturday's 23-3 pre-season loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
Haynesworth openly criticized the coach’s decision not to play him earlier than in the third quarter with the reserves and mocked Shanahan for downplaying his symptoms of rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle fibers resulting in the release of muscle fiber contents into the bloodstream. According to Haynesworth, this is the reason why he missed practices last week.
"Third quarter. I'm a ninth-year pro," Haynesworth said. "I don't think I should have been out there in the third quarter. But, for having 'headaches' again, that was what they wanted to do," said Haynesworth, emphasizing the word by holding his fingers in the air to simulate quotation marks.
The defensive lineman feels that he is being treated unfairly and doesn’t understand the reasoning behind the decision to have him play so late in the game.
“You'll have to ask them, but I guess they'll tell you 'headaches' again. It was part of it, but it wasn't all of it. They left out a whole lot of stuff."
Haynesworth said he had something more, but he didn't specify what. The lines of communications are certainly not clear between both parties and Washington is suffering as a result.
Both feel that they are right and neither wants to be the bigger man and find a solution to resolve this conflict. Shanahan feels strongly about the fact that if Haynesworth can’t practice then he can’t play. "He wasn't going to play with the first or second team for obvious reasons. He's going to have to earn his way to play with that group."
While Haynesworth believes that Shanahan has a personal grudge against him and is making decisions out of spite.
"I don't know. I guess to make yourself look good ...and make me look bad for not going to their off-season conditioning program," said Haynesworth about the coach’s decision making. "But, I mean, next year I'm not coming either. I'll be on my trainer again, and I'll get back in the same shape I'm in, and feel good about myself."
It would appear as if Haynesworth did everything under his power to provoke Shanahan and be a distraction for the Washington Redskins. He opted to boycott the Redskins' off-season program, he demanded a trade, he publicly objected to play nose tackle in Shanahan’s defensive scheme known as a 3-4 defence and he also failed numerous conditioning tests earlier this month.
Both the players and coaches must put their personal issues aside and unite for their common goal: being Super Bowl champions. Now it would appear that both Shanahan and Haynesworth are just wasting negative energy on themselves, instead of trying to fix the problem and move forward as a unit rather than divided.
Tags: