Want to get a handle on just how much of a hot-button topic Albert Haynesworth is in Washington?
Consider that Stan Kasten, the president of the Washington Nationals, has recently weighed in on the defensive tackle. Yes, Kasten took to the airwaves on ESPN 980 in D.C. and looked at the situation from his point of view, one that comes with more than three decades of work in the sports industry. Kasten is a former general manager and president of the Atlanta Hawks and presided over much of the success of the Atlanta Braves when he was their president. Kasten has a good idea what winning spots franchises look like, even if the Nationals aren’t there.
The topic came up for Kasten when he was on the radio during a segment called Lunch with a Legend. Let’s just say he wound up comparing Haynesworth to someone you would never consider—John Rocker, the villified former relief pitcher. Yes, that John Rocker.
“I was distressed, let’s put it that way,” Kasten said, in an interview transcribed by the Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg. “As a fan, it felt wrong. I know the history about him coming here just a year ago, and I saw the box that he put his team in, and a new team, a team that is off to a great start in terms of perception and hopefulness with a new GM and a new coach. It really was unfortunate.
“You don’t see holdouts in baseball, you don’t see guys trying to change their contract. They’re very tough on some things—baseball continues to be the only sport without a real salary-restraint mechanism in place—but they make you live up to the contract that you signed. They make you play it out. They make you honor it, and at least in the case of breaching contracts, they’re very good.
“Because it has hurt the player, it’s hurt all the rest of the players. And this was the rarest of all possibilities. I only had it once in my career, where teammates would come out against a player. That never happens. The one time in my life that it happened was with John Rocker, but that happened here, and that should be all you need to know about what was right and what was wrong.”
Wow. Kasten is right. Some of Haynesworth’s teammates have come out and publicly chastised him. Now, he didn’t attack people’s racial or sexual backgrounds like Rocker did, but Kasten’s point is it’s very, very unusual to see professional athletes come out and criticize teammates. That’s what Haynesworth will have to work against when he reports to training camp. It will be a formidable obstacle.
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