With Redskins great John Riggins continuing his verbal assault on team owner Daniel Snyder, people who get paychecks from Snyder are coming to the owner’s defense. And the latest to do so is the guy who gets the biggest paycheck.
Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who received an enormous contract from Snyder this off-season, said on Sirius NFL Radio’s Late Hits with Bryan McGovern and Ross Tucker (via Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post) that Snyder desperately wants to win and talks to him frequently about what the Redskins can do to win.
“Well, I talk to him at least once a week if not [more often],” Haynesworth said. “They’re usually 15-, 20-, even 30-minute conversations sometimes, depends on what the day is looking like. You know, he’s just a big fan. He’s a guy who will do anything to get the right players and to win. That’s what he wants to do, he wants to win.
“Most of all our conversations start out, like ‘How can we win? Can we win this week? What do you think?’ and things like that. I see nothing wrong with that. I mean, I’ve had an owner that was absent and came to probably two or three games that I saw a year, and I have an owner now that’s there the majority of the week, coming out to practice and really concerned with his team and trying to figure out how to make his team better and to make us succeed and make all the fans happy. You know, I’ve never met John Riggins or anything like that, I don’t know what [critics] have against Mr. Snyder. But as far as I know, I mean, he’s a guy who has the money and he wants to win and he’ll do almost anything to win.”
It’s no surprise that Haynesworth thinks highly of the guy who made him rich beyond his wildest dreams eight months ago, and it’s not a surprise that Snyder desperately wants to win. The question, though, is whether Snyder knows how to go about winning. Snyder might be better off hiring a good coaching staff and allowing the coaches to have the weekly conversations with his high-priced players.