Albert Haynesworth missed practice again yesterday, making it four days in a row that the malcontent defensive lineman has not participated. Naturally, this is a little concerning.
Last season, Haynesworth famously took ten days to pass the Redskins' conditioning test, which made some Patriots' writers and fans nervous about his motivation. Clearly those concerns were justified as Haynesworth has not given any reason to believe that he is a changed man.
So what gives? Belichick said that Haynesworth passed the initial conditioning test here in Foxboro but that may just be a little bit of gamesmanship on his part. Even if Haynesworth didn't pass the test, I find it hard to believe that Belichick would throw him under the bus the way that Mike Shanahan did last season.
There has been no reports if Haynesworth has suffered any significant injury thus far in training camp, only that he is "day to day" according to Belichick and the Patriots' secretive medical staff. Early word out of camp was that he was disruptive on the field, dominating lineman and breaking up plays, according to Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald.
Haynesworth does look extremely out of shape but if Belichick says he passed the test, than that shouldn't be the issue. Is it a locker room problem? Unlikely. Maybe he is actually injured, one of the many casualties of a shortened training camp.
Whatever the case may be, this is shaping up to be a problem for the Patriots. If Haynesworth makes the Patriots' opening day roster, he is guaranteed a $5-million dollar salary, even if he doesn't play a down. The Pats currently have something like 36284 defensive linemen on the roster, so losing Haynesworth wouldn't be the end of the world, just a major disappointment.
No matter how the rest of the preseason goes, the number one story has to be Haynesworth, which is not neccessarily a good thing for the team.
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