Tue Oct 27, 2009 4:01 am EDT
After
losing 27-17 at home to the Philadelphia Eagles last night, the
Washington Redskins' $100 million man blasted his teammates for a lack of heart.
Said Haynesworth, via the Associated Press:
"Urgency, heart, 'want-to,' whatever. I don't know. We're lacking a lot of stuff right now," the defensive tackle said. [...]
Asked if he delivered a postgame speech in the locker room, Haynesworth replied: "You can say but so much. You've got to actually 'want to.' So once we get to that point - where we 'want to' do something - then we'll do something. But if we just keep going our separate ways, then we'll just keep getting slaughtered like we have."
So it's an attitude issue. Let's stick with that for a minute. Do we believe in the "attitude reflects leadership" adage? Let's say we do.
What's the leadership situation with the 'Skins? Well, we've got an emasculated head coach, an offensive play-caller type whose play-calling duties were just given to a guy who had been with the team for about a week. Ownership could not have made it clearer that they do not support or like the current head coach, and he will be fired, at the latest, at the end of this miserable season. No one will be confusing him with William Wallace.
Above him, we've got an owner who is almost universally reviled, and whose greatest contribution to the franchise to this point has been ... I don't know, bringing Tom Cruise to a game? Redskins legends have been lining up to verbally tear him a new one recently. No one will be confusing him with General Patton.
If a change in attitude will only come from leadership, then the Redskins are probably screwed. Snyder has the respect of no one and is going nowhere, and Jim Zorn's been stripped of any authority he had. Frankly, it's hard to see where Jim Zorn has much of a reason to care.
As for Haynesworth, he hasn't been above the questions of urgency, heart want-to, and whatever this year, either. He's taken his own criticism for being out-of-shape and/or lazy.
Shutdown Corner is an NFL blog edited by Matthew J. Darnell. Email him, and follow him on Twitter.

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85 Comments
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Perhaps he might want to "lead by example".
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MJD - either take care of the spam in this place, or hire someone that will - you may be the laziest man in the world!!! As always, they SHOULD shut down this corner!!!
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I feel the same way you do, being a Steelers fan and feeling sorry for the Browns. I want our rivalry back. The Ravens are douchenozzles from Baltimore and the Bungles are irrelevant even when they do decide to compete every 5 years or so. . .
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Zorn isn't even the head coach, there was another coaching staff on the field put by Cerrato and Snyder. What kind of message does that send a "Team". Snyder is a failure and hes been failing for ten years. The Fans don't like you stop being involved in football operations , stick to marketing Danny
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