Quote:
Originally Posted by firstdown
You guys sound like a women complaining about not getting what she wanted for her birthday. If he shows up and is out of shape come game day then bitch all you want but for now lets wait and see. Last season people bitched because they said he took to many plays off and was out of shape. Now that he says hea is working hard to get into shape the same people are bitching. If you reply to this post while at home maybe you should volunteer and go into work today.
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The strange dichotomy of the professional football player: part independent contractor, part union employee. As an independent contractor, Haynesworth got himself a sweet deal and now, as a union employee he has apparently decided to work only to the specifications of his contract. That is his right. I don't dispute that.
On the other hand, being a good teammate takes more than a "meets minimum" effort. All he had to do was to take a few days away from his training to join his teammates in a short learning and practicing camp. It would have cost him nothing, as far as his training regimen is concerned.
Plus he may have learned something and he might even have been able to help a teammate or two learn something, as well. If he didn't want to help out the team by giving some tips to younger players, perhaps he could have made himself useful by spotting for a teammate who was doing bench reps or by picking up a towel and putting it in a laundry basket. He could have done something, anything, to help out someone else on the team if he cared anything at all about the team. But he couldn't be bothered to do anything to help a single teammate. That's why I said that he is behaving selfishly.
Your analogy about a Haynesworth critic coming in on weekends is way off base. Nevertheless, I'll try to enlighten you on that point. When I was working (I'm retired) I went into the office on many weekends, just as, I'd bet, many of the folks on this board do or have done. Not only that, but I went into the office Monday through Friday, too. And I worked more than an 8 hour day more often than not. I also took work home and did it on my own time.
And, before you think I'm being self-congrtulatory, I don't think that I did anything special. Most Americans work very hard all year long. But even all that work doesn't usually solve their money problems. In fact, many Americans are forced to work more than one job just to make ends meet. And some of those people may never be able to send their kids to college or to retire.
And, in view of that, you want me to think it's a big deal for a man who has already been paid $32,000,000 by his employer for less than two years of work, a man who is set for life due to that employer, to show enough appreciation for all that has been done for him and his family to come to work for 3 days? If you don't think that he is acting like an ingrate, then I think that you need to re-examine either your position on Haynesworth coming to mini-camp or your value system.