Game Girl

Don't let the door hit you on the way out of town, Albert. And don't come back!

Yes, as I have stated previously, I think this situation could have been handled better from the get-go by Shanahan and Allen, but the fact is, they rolled the dice and lost. Happens to the best of us. They tried to make lemonade out of lemons by keeping Haynesworth around and attempting to motivate him by appealing to his "conscience", his so-called "work ethic", and his "love of the game" of football. But they found out the hard way what so many others -- especially those in Tennessee -- already knew: that Haynesworth isn't motivated by ANY of those things. He's not even motivated by money...gobs of it. More money than 99.8 % of people will ever see in their lifetime. Dude couldn't even get his butt in gear for 40 MILLION dollars. Wow. Talk about spoiled, entitled athletes.

But whatever. Shanahan tried. His teammates tried. The defensive coaches tried. OK, so we don't know the whole story. Who said what to whom. But here's what we DO know: we know Haynesworth didn't want to play in the "3-4" defense (if that is the defense this team is even running). We know he didn't want to train in the off-season with his teammates. We know he didn't (or WOULDN'T) give his all on every play each and every time he was on the field. We know he sure had a lot of "issues" for a rich guy living the dream of playing in the NFL.

So, as Shanahan said yesterday, it was just time. Time to cut our losses and take our lumps for the biggest free-agent bust of all time, at least where the game of football is concerned.

What happens now? Well, I for one certainly hope we can wipe the slate clean. Learn from our mistakes. Take a good, hard look at where all this ridiculous obsession with free agency has gotten this franchise...staring down another 5-11 season with mediocre talent, overpaid past-their-prime stars and a whole lot of disgruntled fans. Pay attention, Dan Snyder -- this means YOU! Remember when you said you had learned "patience" from Joe Gibbs? Well, funny how after he left, you went out and signed the world's most selfish, entitled player to join our team. Raced down to TN in your plane like the world was on fire to get him as soon as the market bell clanged. Brought him here on a bloated contract and watched as he tried to destroy this team and this franchise. Stole your money -- and not just your money. MY money. The fans' money. We pay for all those jerseys, those tickets, those beers at the stadium. And YOU, Dan Snyder, squandered our money on the worst personnel move anyone has ever witnessed.

Here's hoping we have finally hit rock-bottom. Maybe we can finally starting heading in the right direction.

Happy now, Haynesworth?