Chris Cooley Says Albert Haynesworth Was Trying To Get Released

Remember when Albert Haynesworth signed that massive contract with the Washington Redskins, and then spent a season playing so poorly that people actually wondered if he was trying to get released? As it turns out, he was!

At least that's what his former teammate, Chris Cooley, says. Here's what Cooley had to say about Haynesworth on ESPN 980 last week (transcription via ):

He was trying to get released by the team. His goal was to come here, make a large signing bonus, and then get released and not have to do any of the work. He didn’t care about the back end of that contract, he didn’t care about making all of that money. His idea was, you paid me for what I did in the past, and my goal is to be released as soon as possible and basically take $33 million from you for absolutely nothing.

[...]

And it’s really unfortunate when that happens. I guess his point to it, or his excuse for it, was well, the leagues steal from all you guys, the leagues won’t pay you your salaries, they won’t give you your money, so I’m gonna get what’s right from them.

You know what? More power to Albert Haynesworth. Football is a vicious game that, as Chris Cooley points out, offers its players very little in the way of financial or career stability. So Haynesworth decided that he was going to take his money and run instead of playing hard enough to eventually become the kind of broken-down washout that gets unceremoniously dumped by teams every day. Albert got his money, and now he's got a boat and some ladies. Good on him.

[ Washington Post]