Albert Haynesworth Wrote a Letter To His Younger Self Where He Told Himself Not To Sign With The Redskins Because They Would Take Away His Love For Football
If nothing else, listen to me on this, Albert: Do not leave the Tennessee Titans. Your defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is a mastermind. No matter how much I tell you this, you’ll probably never realize it until your career is over, but it’s true. You’re like a system quarterback. You thrive in a very specific scheme. When you hit free agency, the Washington Redskins are going to offer you $100 million. Everyone will talk about this (they won’t talk about the fact that most of that money is not guaranteed, or that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offered you $135 million). The $100 million will become a huge burden. Take less and stay in Tennessee where you belong.
And that’s the first thing that should blow your mind. Ultimate regret for signing in DC. Ultimate regret for not staying with Tennessee where he flourished. “The $100 million will become a huge burden”. Sounds like the best burden of all time to me, but somewhat sad the way he puts it.
Oh, when you get on that first phone call with Dan Snyder and the organization in Washington, it’ll be all good. “We want you to play just like you did in Tennessee, Albert. We’re going to let you loose and destroy the Giants, Cowboys and Eagles. That’s your job.”
Then during your first OTA, you’re going to be introduced to a different brand of football. I can already see you rolling your damn eyes. How can football be different? I’m a defensive lineman. Well, football in Washington versus football in Tennessee was like the difference between a general physician and a cardiologist. Both doctors. One is just a little more sophisticated.
Well shit. “Both doctors. One is just a little more sophisticated”. It’s one thing when I blog about how the Redskins organization is run like a clown show, it’s another when a former Pro Bowler’s mind is blown by how the Skins run everything. I’ve blogged all the time about how the Skins run their organization like idiots. How winning organizations do it one way, how the Skins do it different (for the last 15 fucking years). Yes, they have made steps by hiring Scot McCloughan, but the previous 15 years have been nothing but a clusterfuck. Good to see people who were there witnessing it agree.
People are going to be all over you for your contract, and you’re going to feel really frustrated. You’re going to do some dumb things. But what people aren’t going to see is Mike Shanahan calling you into his office and saying, “Albert, we just want you to eat up space. All we want you to do is grab the center and let the linebackers run free.” You’re going to look at this famous NFL head coach in total disbelief and say, “You want to pay me $100 million to grab the center?” And he’s going to say, with a straight face, “Albert, if you have more than one sack this season, I’m going to be pissed.” The last thing you’ll say before walking out of the office is, “Can’t you just pay someone $300,000 a year to do that?”
Well that’s about the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. We all knew it at the time, but holy shit reading that gave me PTSD. “Albert, if you have more than one sack this season, I’m going to be pissed”. We payed him 100 million dollars after 1 good season in Tennessee to do nothing that he thrived at.
You will lose your passion for football in Washington, and it will be impossible to get back. In retirement, you will discover that your financial advisor has squandered most of the money you made with the Redskins, and he will be under investigation for financial fraud. Thankfully, you will have discovered a passion for restoring houses and buying property during your offseasons. You’ll even open up a BurgerFi restaurant in Knoxville (I know you love burgers). Instead of being on the beach in the Bahamas, like most people probably think you are, you will be hanging drywall in a condo in South Carolina. And you know what? That will make you extremely happy.
And there’s the final blow. Washington took his soul straight out of his body and stomped on it. His financial advisor blew all of his money. And now he hangs drywall in South Carolina. What a weird twist of events. What a fascinating story. He was awful in DC. Fucking awful. He played without passion. He played like a guy who didn’t want to be there. And hey as it turns out, he didn’t! Shanahan and Snyder took his love of the game from him. And to that I say it’s bullshit, but it’s more bullshit he didn’t show up and do his job the best he could. Just because he didn’t agree with the scheme doesn’t mean he wasn’t getting paid to do it. Haynesworth was a disgrace of a player on the Skins, and this letter does make you understand it, but it doesn’t excuse it.
