Haynesworth's Real Worth

Background: Albert Haynesworth signed a $100 million contract in 2009. He played disappointingly for the disappointing Washington team. He was due $21 million on April 1, 2010. Before this, though, he had expressed concerns about changes in the team and expressed his desire to be traded to a team where he would be more comfortable and hopefully productive. Despite these concerns, though, he cashed the check and promptly heldout from all Redskins activites. When asked to give the money back, he refused. When asked to come in and do something for the millions he was being paid, he refused. Months later Haynesworth ended up in camp, but did drop a few memorable quotes along the way.

My favorite Haynes-words is his comment to the effect that just because he signed a contract doesn't mean that he has to do what the Redskins say to do. This seems weird to me, because I had always interpreted the employer-employee relationship as the employee gets paid and in turn does what the employer says to do. If he doesn't want to do it, he can refuse. But he can't honestly expect to get paid for nothing, right? No, that's exactly what he expects. This is the base of the problem, I think: Al doesn't understand the basics of the employer-employee relationship. But there's a bigger problem: he won't play for $100 million.

I honestly can't believe that Albert won't play for $100 million. To give some persepctive,the only other NFL players to get 9 fgures were quarterbacks. And all those were at least 8-year deals. Al's was 7 years. That means he's making more than Peyton, more than Favre, and more than any other player per year. And he gets paid that much to be fat. He gets paid almost $1,000,000 per week during the season to clog the middle of the line. Usually a person's salary would spread over 52 weeks, but seeing as Al didn't come to training camp, OTA's, or anything else during the offseason, that doesn't seem right. And I'd say it's also not really a stretch that he didn't work hard during the offseason as he failed the conditioning test (which I'm pretty sure Betty White could pass) 7 times when he finally did show up to work. So what did he do during his time off? As far as I can tell, he sat around and was fat. Wish I could get that gig.

The Right Way and the Lebron Way

LeBron (James) said today that he believes race played a part in the media's portrayal of him and the negative reaction his hour-long special "The Decision" garnered. I absolutely agree. Afterall, who is LeBron always compared to? The greatest white athlete of all time: Michael Jordan. Not convinced? Well, the other Hall of Famer he's being compared to is of course the other great white hope Magic Johnson. Seriously though, what the hell? It reminds me of the old Kobe commercial and what Daniel Tosh said about it. The ad showed Kobe saying things like ":hate me beacuse I'm great, hate me because of my work ethic" etc. No, we hate you because you were accused of rape. Likewise, we don't hate LeBron because he's black. We hate him because he took ego to a whole new level and showed the whole world that he'd rather take the easy way out than work hard (like Jordan) and beat the best. And the more he talks, the more reason I have to hate him. He said he learned a lot about Cavs owner Dan Gilbert when he left him high and dry on national TV with a big fuck you to Ohio. He drew out a simple answer of where he'd play next year into a 60 minute, drawn out, completely unnecessary celebration of Him.

And it's not an issue of race. When Brett Favre retired, then went to Minny by way of NY, there was outrage. There was contervesy. And people who have been longtime supporters became instant haters. The media blasted him, and so did the fans. And I doubt it's because he's black. The issue is that there is a right way to do things and a wrong way. As anyone who knows me will attest to, I hate the Lakers. But Kobe (2-time defending NBA champion, btw) decided to stay with the Lakers and sign an extension, there was no hour-long special. There was no 20-minute intro with hard-hitting questions like "how's your summer been." He never declared that his talents would remain in Hollywood. He signed on the dotted line and went back to practice. And that, in a nutshell, is the difference between Lebron and every athlete worth revering. The ones who do it right do it quiet. The ones who do it wrong do it loud. Lebron also said in his CNN interview that he wanted to do what was right for him and his family. And yet he doesn't understand why the media says he's self-centered.

When it comes down to it, this was not an issue of race. It was an issue of LeBaby and his need to be the center of the sports world for as long as possible. It's an issue of an immature kid who's been the biggest, best athlete since the time he was 7 and thinks he can do anything he wants and play it off as him against the world. I mean seriously. When is he going to realize that there may be a reason why the world is against him?It baffles me how delusional one an can be, and how, even after the fact of his incredibly short-sighted actions, he refuses to admit any wrong doing. And no, Lebron, I don't think you should be ashamed because you're black.