During Sunday night’s game between the Cowboys and Redskins (on NBC, by the way), images emerged of Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth standing away from what appeared at first blush to be a defensive meeting.
A league source explained to us on Monday that Haynesworth wasn’t boycotting a meeting of the full defense. Instead, the huddle involved linebackers and defensive backs, and no defensive linemen.
Closer review of a photo posted by Mike Tunison of KSK and various other blogs confirms that no defensive linemen were in the huddle. Though the presence of a player wearing No. 95 creates the impression that at least one defensive lineman was involved, the man who wears the number (Chris Wilson) plays linebacker.
In the image in question, defensive linemen (including Phillip Daniels and Kedric Gholston) appear to be sitting on and standing near the bench behind Haynesworth, with no coaches involved in the discussion.
That said, Haynesworth’s demeanor at the time suggested that he wouldn’t have been in the meeting even if it involved every player, coach, and club employee -- and if free food and beverages were being served. Also, it’s possible that Haynesworth has projected that same demeanor on other occasions, when coaches were trying to gather the defensive linemen for further instruction.
Either way, the Redskins either need to embrace this guy or get rid of him -- and if he doesn’t want to be embraced they should get him out of there before he screws up what could be a good first season for coach Mike Shanahan.