SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2010
KLMNO PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL Haynesworth says ‘everything’s been fine’ with Shanahan BY RICK MAESE AND DAN STEINBERG In his most extensive com-
ments of the season, Albert Haynesworth said “everything’s beenfine”betweenthe controver- sial defensive lineman andWash- ingtonRedskinsCoachMike Sha- nahan, andHaynesworth expects to play in Sunday’s game at the St. Louis Rams. But in a radio ap- pearance Saturday afternoon, Haynesworth conceded that this season is off to an unusual start. “It’s been real crazy,” Haynes-
worth said on 106.7 The Fan’s “The Kevin and Rock Show.” “I’ve never seen anything like this.” Prior to Saturday’s radio ap-
pearance, Haynesworth had lim- itedhismedia availability topost-
game comments. But he an- swered questions for nearly 15 minutes and offered his most detailed explanation to date of the rift that grew between him and the organization. While Haynesworth said he
has come around on the team’s new 3-4 defense and feels he has more opportunities to chase the quarterback than a year ago, he characterized his absence from the team’s offseason workouts as a stand based on principals. “I guess, in thisworld,we don’t
have a lot of people with back- bones. Just because somebody pays you money don’t mean they’ll make you do whatever they want. I mean, that means everything is for sale. Imean, I’m not for sale,” Haynesworth said. “Yeah, I signed the contract and
got paid a lot of money, but just because, that don’t mean I’m for sale or a slave or whatever. “We agreed upon coming to
that [contract] that I’d play de- fensive tackle and not nose guard and all that other stuff. I was signing with a 4-3 team,” he continued. “Itwas a lot of promis- es and stuff like that. But now, it’s been better, dealing with [defen- sive coordinator Jim] Haslett, and we run a lot of 4-3 stuff and you’ll see that [Sunday].” Haynesworth is listed as ques-
tionable on the team’s injury report and Shanahan said on Friday that Haynesworth has no assurances of playing Sunday. Haynesworth was inactive in the team’s Week 2 loss to Houston because of an ankle sprain. In the team’s seasonopener againstDal-
las, Haynesworth came off the bench and played sparingly, mostly at nose tackle. Any lingering frustrations
were not apparent in the inter- view. Haynesworth said that he’s open to attending the team’s or- ganized team activities (OTAs) next offseason but would prefer to work with his personal trainer rather that participate in the team’s offseason conditioning program. Haynesworth said that he
“wasn’t in the best shape” in 2009 after participating in Jim Zorn’s conditioning program, and after spending this offseason with his trainer, he feelsmuch better than he did last season. “This year — well, I’ve only
played 17 plays so far this season — but when you’ve seen me play,
you’ll see a difference than last year,” he said. Haynesworth came to the Red-
skins as a free agent in February 2009 and was the team’s biggest free agent acquisition since own- erDanSnyder bought the teamin 1999. He requested a trade in the offseason, but the team has not found a deal to its liking. SoHaynesworth has remained
in Washington, apparently more content with his lot than he was during the preseason when he and Shanahan exchanged terse words through themedia. “A lot of it wasn’t as bad as
what theymade it seemlike inthe papers. . . .wehadgoodconversa- tions,”Haynesworth said. “Every- thing’s been fine.”
maeser@washpost.com steinbergd@washpost.com
Crazy for dogs, coaching and New Orleans
iPhone application Football Insider 2010
6
Download Football Insider 2010, a free iPhone app
featuring breaking news from the Redskins Insider blog, every Redskins-related Post article and column, photo galleries and complete, updating statistics from each game. Search for “Football Insider” or “Redskins” in the iTunes app store to find it.
EZ SU
D7
JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST “He loves the game, the camaraderie part of it,” BethHaslett says of her husband Jim, shown hereworkingwith some of theRedskins’ defensive players prior to the team’s opener against theCowboys. haslett from D1
Bradshaw’s helmet had been jarred off. There were times when he would do or say anything. “He says what he says,” said
former Pittsburgh linebacker Levon Kirkland, who played un- der Haslett from 1997-99. “He’s goingto tellyouthe truth—really, a lot of times, even in spite of himself.” Haslett returns Sunday to St.
Louis, where the Redskins face the Rams. In 2006,Haslett served as the Rams’ defensive coordina- tor,ajobhesaysnowhe“probably shouldn’t have ever took, because it was a baaaaaad football team.” Four games into the 2008 season, Scott Linehan was fired, andHas- lett became the Rams’ head coach. His thoughts on that posi- tion: “I should’ve never took the head coaching job because it was a baaaaaad football team.” In so many ways, Haslett —
54-year-old father of three, dog lover, sports fan—is an ordinary football coach. His stint inWash- ington is the ninth of a typically itinerant coaching career. But he is far from typical, both by his natureandnowbyhis experience. Of all his stops, from Sacramento to St. Louis, none touched Has- lett’s life like his time in New Orleans. The Saints have received credit for helping stitch together a city torn apart by Hurricane Katrina. But Sean Payton was not the coach then, and Drew Brees was not the quarterback. From 2000, when he was the
NFL’s coach of the year — andthe Saints won the first playoff game in franchise history — through 2005,Haslett was the head coach of the Saints. And thus, when disaster struck, he was the one whotried to hold his team togeth- er.
So you want a typical response
on the Saints and New Orleans and inspiration and Katrina? Look to someone other than Jim Haslett. “I was happy for a lot of people
there,” Haslett said of the Saints’ Super Bowl win. “I was happy for Mr. [Tom] Benson [the team’s owner], for the guys that were there when I was coaching there, for those people in the organiza- tion.They went through a lot,and they deserved it. “The thing I don’t like about it is when I hear [people] like Drew
Brees talk about Katrina. He had no idea what those people went through.Those guys have no clue, because he was on the outside looking in. So don’t talk about what itmeantto the city.Youhave no clue.” Long before he became a
coach, Haslett knew a bit about what football can mean to a city.
‘A bastion ofmanhood’ Haslett grewup inAvalon,Pa.,
five miles up the Ohio River from Three Rivers Stadium, then the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was the oldest of six kids who shared a three-bedroom, one- bath house with their parents—a school custodian and a home- maker — two grandparents and three dogs. The Haslett house- hold wasn’t one of sit-down din- ners and white linen. Jim and his brothers slept in the attic in the winter, outside in the summer. “You didn’t know what you
didn’t know,” Haslett said. “It’s not like we never had anything. We got everything we wanted.” Haslettheadedto college not to
pursue a career in pro football but to play basketball. Yet he bulked uptoo quickly,andsohebecamea safety for the football team,thena defensive end and linebacker. He thought he’d wind up as an ele- mentaryschool teacher.Heended upas a four-time Little All-Ameri- ca selection, and then in the NFL. In 1979, the Bills, where new
coach Chuck Knox was trying to instill a nastiness, turned out to be the perfect fit forHaslett. “It was just a bastion of man-
hood,” Smerlas said. “We wanted to win.We wanted to take people out.We wanted to kill people.” Buffalo’s training camp be-
came the “Animal House” of the NFL. Haslett and Smerlas would lean 50-gallon jugs of water against a player’s dorm-room door, knock, and die laughing when the door swung open and the flood began. They copped a master key that worked for every dorm room, and would stay up late, lurking in the hallways, wait- ing for a teammate to head to the bathroom.Thenthey’dsneak into the room, hide in the closet, wait for the teammate to tuck himself back in — and pounce, using knives as menacing props. Somehow, they developed as
football players, too. Every Tues- day, the players’ day off in the
GEORGE GOJKOVICH/GETTY IMAGES
As a player, JimHaslett once stepped on the head of Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, after his helmet had been jarred off.
NFL, Smerlas would wander through the team’s facility. There he would find Haslett, watching game tape. “He was a film rat,” Smerlas
said. “He’d be involved in game- planning. He’d call out adjust- ments.For aguywith such a small head, he was very, very smart.” Coaching, it would seem, was a
natural. “I didn’t know if I wanted to
coach,”Haslett said. “I can’t believe he’d say that,”
Smerlas said. “I knew he’d be a coach.”
Season of Katrina Haslett married his wife, Beth,
during his days in Buffalo, and he tried to prepare her for the path that lay ahead — the moves to Sacramento for a job in the old World League, to Los Angeles for his first job in the NFL, back to Pittsburgh, where he coordinated the Steelers’ defense. Beth got good at it, packing up and fully relocating in six weeks or less, keeping the family together. Nothing, though, could have
prepared them for that fall of 2005. When Katrina struck, Beth gathered the three kids and the family dog and headed east to Pensacola, Fla., where the Has- letts have a beach place. Jim gath- ered the Saints and headed west to San Antonio, where the team would play most of its home games. Beth and the family were evacuated from Pensacola, and they ended up sharing a single hotel room with a family friend, her daughter and their two dogs. “From a football perspective, it
was obviously the worst possible thing that could happen to a foot- ball team,” Haslett said, “because youhadnoway you couldwinany games.” The Saints started out 2-2, then
lost 11 of their final 12. Each week, a new crisis emerged. Players came toHaslett saying they want- edto quit. Secretaries did quit.On Thanksgiving, the coaches’ wives made it to San Antonio, and they tried to hold a proper holiday dinner for dozens in a two-bed- room apartment. The kids ate on one bed, the coaches on the floor,
paper plates for all. The strife in a football organi-
zation hardly compares to that suffered by a city. Still, Haslett hadto addresseachteampredica- ment as his own. “Other coaches in that situa-
tion, I think they would’ve been more selfish than Haz was,” said Redskins tackle JammalBrown, a rookie offensive lineman for the Saints then. “ButHaz kept it all in perspective for us. He had our comfort level inmindfirst. I think it’s human nature when some- thing like that happens to auto- matically look out for yourself.He didn’t do that.” That doesn’t mean he could
endure it all. “He was very sick at the end of
that season,” BethHaslett said. “It waskilling him. Itwasemotional- ly draining on the kids. I don’t know if anyone will ever know how hard it was.” After the season, Haslett met
with Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis, and they decided to part ways. “I was never fired,” he said. Through a Saints spokes- man, Loomis and Benson de- clined comment on that period in franchise history. Both parties moved on — as
much as they could. The Saints have recovered. The Hasletts, in some ways, are still working at it. Both Jim and Beth praised Ben- son as an owner, and both said they love the city ofNewOrleans. But on their one trip back, they scarcely left the hotel room. “I think it’s still raw for me,”
Beth Haslett said. “I think it’s really unfair that there are people down there that, yes, they were there after the fact, and they’ve done a beautiful job. But they weren’t there when it hurt the most. They didn’t see that side of it. To act thatway, like they sawit, is a little bit disrespectful to those other coaches that endured it all, that really, really wanted to suc- ceed and were put in an impossi- ble position.”
Back formore in the 3-4 Done with New Orleans, and
passed over for other head coach- ing jobs, Haslett thought he would take 2006 off. That didn’t work. “I’mkind of hyper,” he said. He tried a few TV appearances, but he sweat too much, hated the makeup and the sitting around. He needed to coach.
“He loves the game, the cama-
raderie part of it,” Beth Haslett said. So when Linehan offered a job,
hetook it.Whenhewasdismissed by theRamsfollowing a 2-142008 season, he thought, again, he might sit out a year. But the UFL’s Florida Tuskers called, offered Haslett the head coaching job, and, “I had a blast. Everything they did was first-class.” He also formed a friendship
with Mike Shanahan, the former Denver coach who himself was sitting out a year.Thepair studied the 3-4 defense together, and when Shanahan was hired in Washington in January,healmost immediately hiredHaslett. Now,Haslett is instituting that
3-4 defense he knows so well.His players, who gave up 526 yards in last Sunday’s overtime loss to Houston, are still adjusting to his scheme and his aggressive style. But there is, they say, universal respect — not in small measure because they know Haslett played. “When you’re out there and
you’re lining up, he’s not unrealis- tic,” veteran defensive lineman Vonnie Holliday said. “Some coaches that have never played the game, they have this idea of perfection. You strive for perfec- tion, but it’s not always going to be perfect. So he’s not going to rip youforthat stuff.He’s like, ‘Iknow what this is like.Try to get it done.’ As a player, you can respect that.” Haslett is comfortable with the
respect level he has engendered, both in the lockerroomandin the NFL. He has been a successful coordinator, become the NFL’s coach of the year, and may one day be a head coach again. One thing gnaws at him, though. “From the ultimate team goal,
I’ve fallen short,”Haslett said. That, he said, is why he’s in
Washington, to win a Super Bowl. First, though, he was to gather this weekend with his family in their Missouri home, the one weekend Dad will be back. Beth planned a special dinner for Sat- urday night. “I told the kids, when Dad’s in
the house, they will be in the house,” Beth said. Striving, at least for 24 hours,
to be a typical family despite their atypical experiences, their atypi- cal life, their atypical dad.
svrlugab@washpost.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174