Albert Haynesworth, the Skins $100 million man, wants you to know that he didn't do it for the money. Oh, no. You see, there was another owner out there willing to pay him even more. At least that's what he told Sirius NFL Radio, as relayed by PFT.
Albert says that the Skins weren't the highest offer. He claims that Tampa Bay offered him even more. "No, I could’ve made more money with Tampa Bay if I had really wanted to. They offered me a whole lot more, and even with their tax situation, it could have been 20 percent more"
$120 million will get you out of a whole lot of traffic accidents!
So why didn't he take the money and run? 'Cause he liked the Skins' chances better, and because he loves DC.
"You look at Washington, they’ve got a lot of the pieces together. They’re right there. They’re in a huge market. It’s one of the largest markets in the world. You’ve just got a large, huge media outlet and it can be life beyond football. Going to Tampa, I mean, great city.
“Looking at it from the offseason standpoint, I love the water. I love to be out in the sun. It’s just awesome, but it would’ve been like another Nashville. Tampa doesn’t have that big market and they don’t have a huge fan base like the Washington Redskins do, so I think it was just a choice just to look at it that way."
Maybe he really likes touring the monuments at night, too?
Haynesworth signed his $100 million deal in the wee hours of the night, right after the free agency period opened. His former team, the Titans, are pursuing a grievance with the NFL, alleging that the Skins jumped the gun. But Haynesworth says that not only were the Bucs willing to go higher, the Skins weren't even the first team to contact him. (Tampa was.)
Still, does the ability of his agent to field all these calls, balance offers, get input from Albert and have everything wrapped up all in a few hours without any tampering having gone on? Perhaps.
But at least Dan Snyder can sleep tight tonight. He got Albert for a twenty-percent discount.
