First I want to know, why is everyone surprised about the whole Albert Haynesworth situation in Washington. No I'm not talking about his diagnosis of rhabdomyolysis, I'm talking about the disruption he is causing the Redskins because of his insubordination. Did anyone really think that this guy, with such a troubled past, would not cause any more waves.
Let's look at the past:
He comes into the league in 2002 as the 15th overall pick to the Titans.
In 2003, he is kicked (pun intended) out of practice for pulling a Bruce Lee and landing a boot to teammate Justin Hartwig's chest.
Then in 2005 there was this:
Come on, a 350 pound man stomped on another grown man's head. He goes from Bruce Lee to Ed Norton in American History X.
After that, Haynesworth was the peria of the NFL. He was toxic. He was the face of everything that is wrong in sports.
Then comes 2007 where he makes the Pro Bowl and All-Pro teams.
He follows up in 2008 with an even more dominating season, and is considered the most dominant defensive player in the league.
All is forgotten, and Haynesworth is loved by all in the league. ESPN, the same company that depicted Haynesworth as the ultimate villian a few years before, starts touting him as a megastar. He is on the cover of magazines and websites, becomes a face for the NFL and becomes a Titans legend.
It is pretty funny how sports fans and Americans, in general, have a short memory when things start to go right.
All this success was parlayed into a contract with the Redskins in the spring of '09 for 7 years and $100 million, with $41 million guarenteed.
His first season was nowhere near as dominant as his time with the Titans, at one point he called out D-coordinator Greg Blache and stated that he could not "survive another season in this system if it stays the way it is." Now the old Albert is back.
So the 'Skins hire Mike Shanahan as their head coach, and the pairing of Shanahan and Haynesworth is about as brutal as Flavor Flav and Mrs. Ivan Drago.
Before the draft, Washington was looking for any suitors to take the bohemeth and his even larger contract out of their hands. No takers.
This combination was never going to work. The disciplinarian ways of Shanahan, and a $100 million man-child, not a good mix. So here, as we have seen this summer, Haynesworth has been failing conditioning drills, Shanahan not allowing him into training camp until the conditioning is successfully completed, then not giving Haynesworth reps with the starters, which in turn has the big d-lineman pouting about how he is a 9-year vet and shouldn't be playing in the 3rd quarter of a preseason game.
This is and will end badly for both sides.
Next topic: Pittsburgh Pirates
So it's official, there will be an 18th consecutive losing season. In fact, with the resent surge from the Orioles under Buck Showalter, the Pirates are in line for the #1 pick in the draft. As documented earlier, they haven't been too successful at that. What bad luck for Pirates' fans, the year we get the #1 pick is the year after two of the highest-rated players in draft history, Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, go #1 to the Nationals in consecutive years. The Pirates' fans are like Harry in Home Alone when he is trying to get in the McAllister's house. You try and try, keep getting up after every blow, hoping that at some point you will succeed, and yet you still end up looking like a bird with a missing gold tooth.
Then today it comes out that the Pirates' ownership has made $29.4 million in profits over the 2007 and 2008 seasons. This allowed them to pay their partners $20.4 million. Ok say the ownership group has been making a nice bit of change during this run of 18-straight losing seasons, yet the product on the field remains the same.
So they paid almost $12 million for 2 high school fire ballers, built a complex in the Dominican and forked out $2.6 mil for a 16-year-old Mexican, but what good is that to the fans who pack the stadium on bobblehead and SkyBlast nights and are forced to watch Ronny Cedeno and Ryan Doumit trot onto the field at beautiful PNC Park.
This is the first year in my life that I haven't been to a game, and I made a promise to myself that I would give these youngsters on the team 1 year to prove themselves. If there is no significant improvement by the end of the 2011 season, that's it. I'm cutting ties with the only team I've ever rooted for. Baseball isn't fun anymore. Why would I torture myself listening to John Weiner and Bob Walk announce a game. It is just brutal. Come July, the Buccos are already out of all contention and there isn't anything for those clowns to talk about.
Pittsburgh is a resilent town, with loyal fans, but I think a lot of them are in my position and are completely fed up. The last winning season was when I was 6 years old. Since I was 6, I haven't seen the Pirates in the playoffs. Not once.
A winning team will bring fans and money to the organization, but winning means you have to also spend money, so in the long run the best thing for the Nuttings and their ownership group is to keep losing, cut salaries, and make huge profits for basically doing nothing.
Penguins sign Arron Asham. Ok so to be honest, I didn't know what to do when I say this. Of course I love when the Pens make moves, but Asham, a Flyer, really.
He signed a 1-year deal worth $700,000. Last season he scored 10 goals with 14 assists and 124 penalty minutes while with the Flyers.
Ray Shero, who has done a miraculous job as GM, was estatic to get Asham. I on the other hand am not. And it's not because I have grown accustomed to hating the guy. I'm a realist and know that hockey is a business and allegiances are easily broken, I get that, he's not a Flyer anymore, he's a Penguin. My problem with this signing is, don't we have a bunch of guys that fit this role? A "tough" guy, who chips in occasionally on offense, but is in the lineup as a 3rd or 4th line grit player. Matt Cooke and Mike Rupp come to mind immediately.
What does this signing do for young guys trying to make the NHL roster. Does it hurt guys like Dustin Jeffrey, Nick Johnson, or Mark Letestu, guys that could someday play a role as a top-6 forward? Hasn't our problem been finding consistant scoring wingers to play with Crosby and Malkin? With our financial situation, these wingers are going to have to be developed in house. This Asham signing has made it even more difficult to develop these players at the NHL level. We have more than enough gritty players: Cooke, Rupp, Max Talbot, Craig Adams, and Eric Godard. I would have thought it would have been wiser to take a crack at a guy like Lee Stempniak, who had the most goals last season of any of the free agents not named Ilya Kovalchuck.
Shero also said that he is still in talks about bringing Billy Guerin back for one more run. The Pens currently have $1.7 million to spend, so Guerin would need to take a pay cut from the $2 million he made last year.
In other Pens' news, it is being reported that Evgeni Malkin is gearing up to play wing beside Jordan Staal. Personally I like this move. Malkin is a very talented centerman, but his shot is the best on the team, and is underutilized when he is playing center. By teaming up with Staal, he will be able to unleash his rocket more often. Playing with Malkin, Staal will be able to surpass the numbers he put up his rookie season.
Another reason I like this move is it allows Geno to focus more on the offensive end of the ice. Although he led the league in takeaways in 2008-2009, he is sometimes criticized for his lack of defensive zone prowess. Staal on the other hand, is gearing up to be a perennial Selke Award finalist. He is a defensive machine, and his ablility to compensate for Malkin's expendature of energy on the offensive end of the ice, will make this one of the top lines in the league.
Opponents of this move will say, you don't want to break up the 3rd line, the best 3rd line in the game. That may be so, but that line will never produce the numbers that a Staal/Malkin combo will. We have defensive centermen who can fill in for Staal: Talbot, Adams,and even Letestu.
This could very well be make or break seasons for Tyler Kennedy and Max Talbot in Pittsburgh. Talbot is still here because of his heroics to win the Cup, but after an injury-plagued and less than productive 2009-10 season, he has a lot to prove. Kennedy started out strong last year, but completely flamed out by the playoffs. He needs to put a few more pucks in the back of the net to keep his 3rd line spot in the lineup.
With a renewed defensive unit and the combos of Crosby/Kunitz and Malkin/Staal looking to be in place, let's piece together 2 more top-6 wingers and get this show on the road.
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