Albert Haynesworth is an idiot.
Throughout his summer−long refusal to show up for Redskins training camp and his repeated failures of a conditioning test that my grandmother could probably pass on the first try, I tried to withhold judgment of the big fellow. Maybe Washington made some promises to him last year when they inked him to a six−year, $100 million contract that they were no longer upholding. Or maybe Haynesworth was just a hypocrite, or just lazy. Still, I was sure that he had his reasons and that his reasons were in some way justified.
On Saturday, I was forced to change my mind once and for all about Haynesworth. The reason? Only the dumbest interview given by an athlete this year — no small feat in and of itself.
In a recent interview with Washington−area radio station 106.7 The Fan, Haynesworth spoke about his ordeal: "I guess in this world we don't have a lot of people with, like, backbones. … Just because somebody pay you money don't mean they'll make you do whatever they want or whatever. I mean, does that mean everything is for sale?" That is exactly what it means, you carbuncle.
Sorry, Albert, you don't get to sign a $100 million deal and collect a $21 million roster bonus this April and then pretend that you don't understand the rules of capitalism.
Why exactly was Haynesworth refusing to show up for training camp, anyway? Because the Redskins wanted to switch his position from defensive tackle in a 4−3 defense to defensive tackle in new coordinator Jim Haslett's 3−4 scheme. Although both Haynesworth and the Redskins agreed that he would be playing in a 4−3 defense, this is a change Haynesworth probably should have been ready for.
As a ninth−year veteran, Haynesworth should know by now that coaching changes are a way of life in the NFL and that with new coaches, a new formation or style of play often comes along. Instead of accepting this like every other NFL player — and like an adult — Haynesworth whined and pouted and dogged his conditioning test for weeks on end.
And what happened when he finally showed up? He found out that the system wasn't nearly what he thought it was, and now he actually kind of likes it. Maybe he could have gotten to that point in the spring if he had just resigned himself to the change and gotten over it like every other defensive player on the Redskins.
But the real problem with Haynesworth's interview — and the real reason I'm calling him an idiot now — is in this next line: "I mean, I'm not for sale. Yeah, I signed the contract and got paid a lot of money, but … that don't mean I'm for sale or a slave or whatever."
First of all, Albert, a new coaching staff asking you to do a slightly different task on the field doesn't make you a slave — it makes you every single person in the world who has ever had a job. And a pretty well−paid one at that.
Second, it's impossible to come off as anything other than intractably ignorant when you call yourself a slave or compare cashing a $21 million check in April to slavery. You might as well call training camp the Holocaust. And that, Albert Haynesworth, is why you're no longer just lazy or hypocritical.
You're a goddamn fool.
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Ethan Frigon is a senior majoring in economics. He can be reached at Ethan.Frigon@tufts.edu.
