Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Hannan / Sports Albert Haynesworth's Last Week in Nashville?
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 10:49 AM
As of Friday, Titans' defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth becomes an unrestricted free agent. This means the legal bogarting of contract negotiations Tennessee once enjoyed is now over. And since it looks more and more like they're not going to pony up the cash Haynesworth wants, it means the same fate for his time with the team.
Why so sure?
Exhibit A would be the Titans' past history. As ESPN.com writer Paul Kuharsky points out, Tennessee has allowed stars like Jevon Kearse and Jon Runyan to walk once their price got too high.
Exhibit B: A Morton's dinner between Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder and Haynesworth's agent. Snyder is like Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones without the botox, a businessman who fancies himself a talent evaluator. As such, he usually spends each off-season overpaying for a veteran free-agent in order to make a splash. This year that shiny new toy would be Haynesworth.
Not exactly iron-clad proof that Haynesworth is gone. But more than enough to indict.
Comments (5)
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Let him go. While a loyal Titans fan, anyone whose opening salvo is to be the highest paid defensive player in the league is driven by more ego than I can comfortably tolerate and is certainly oblivious to the times in which he is living. I am emotionally worn out reading about out of whack corporate and world of sports salaries. I trust that for the money not spent, Jeff and company will find adequate replacements to keep the Titans competitive. In fact, would love to see the Titans announce that 1 million of the money saved from not bringing Albert back will go to non-profits critical to the social welfare of this community who are at the verge of closing.
Avi Poster
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Avi, I'm with you on the "let him go" sentiment. But not for the same reasons.
Giving up a significant portion of your cap space for one player, especially one who plays in just over half a team's snaps, is not the way to build a franchise. It's acceptable if that money goes to a star QB (especially one like Tom Brady, who structured his deal in a way that still made the Pats solvent enough to sign impact players like Adalius Thomas). But not so much if it goes to an injury-prone DT.
And hearing about inflated salaries actually does the opposite to me. Sports is meant to be a make-believe land, not a reflection of day-to-day reality (otherwise, why would I tune in?).
