He played 49 out of 55 defensive snaps while the rest of the first team rested. And after last night's final pre-season game was over, Albert Haynesworth had "no comment."
That honor belonged to coach Mike Shanahan.
"He has to get in football shape. We have to get him some playing time," Shanny explained. Guess that means the shape of a Gummi Bear is out, then? Because we're pretty sure that was Albert's goal.
"That is one of the reasons he was playing defensive end and nose tackle," Shanny explained of his super-sized defensive lineman, who works a part-time job in "disgruntled" despite a $100 million contract and a $26 million bonus this spring.
"We have to get him in as good as he can possibly be in football shape and there is only one [way] to do it and that is to practice and play."
Oh, nicely done, coach. Nicely done. Because, truly, no matter how you feel about Shanahan's handling of the spat in the past few weeks, the fact that Haynesworth couldn't pass his conditioning test is Haynesworth's alone.
And with weeks of training camp missed, he can protest the playing time if he likes, but no one can dispute the fact that he hasn't seen much action.
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But that doesn't mean he enjoyed it. While the entire rest of the first team stood sidelined in sweat pants and without pads on, offering helpful hints to rookies striving to make the cut, there was 9-year veteran and two-time Pro Bowler Haynesworth, playing the entire thing among them.
Altogether, 31 players didn't even dress out. And it appears Shanahan didn't speak with his superstar beforehand, preferring to leave the issue in the hands of assistants.
"He knew. I think he knew. Coaches said he knew."
On film, it looks like he might have even put forth some effort. But it's hard to imagine, even if correct, Shanahan has seen the end of anything, even if it appears finished in the press.
