Daniel Snyder's wallet never ends. The Redskins' owner has paid and paid and paid for free agents in the past and the on-field results haven't come anywhere close to the amount of money that's been spent on it.
Some things obviously never changed as within a matter of hours early Friday morning, Washington had agreed to a seven-year, $100 million deal with defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. The deal could go as high as $115 million and includes $41 million in guaranteed money, of which $33 million will apparently be given to him during the next year and a month.
That's an amazing amount of cash for a guy who's game is very good, but is still remembered more for stomping on the head of an opponent:
Before Haynesworth agreed to his lucrative contract, the Redskins re-signed cornerback DeAngelo Hall to a six-year, $54 million contract, including $22.5 million in guarantees. He'll reportedly earn $30 million over the first three years.
That's pretty good dough for a guy who couldn't get along with coaches in Atlanta and then signed a mammoth deal with Oakland before last season, but was released after just eight games for his on-the-field ability.
Only time will tell if these moves pay off for the Redskins, but they've had way too many blunders in free agency, including Dana Stubblefield (1998), Jeff George (2000), Deion Sanders (2000), Jeremiah Trotter (2002) and Adam Archuleta (2006). As the USA Today writer puts it... And this list is hardly comprehensive.
Dating back to the '98 signing of Stubblefield, the once very proud 'Skins haven't been a success and have only appeared in the playoffs in 2005 and 2007 and haven't come close to Super Bowl Sunday.
Give Snyder a little credit though. At least he goes out and spends the big money to try and give his fans a winning product. The problem is -- and he should know this by now -- no matter how much you pay, you can't buy chemistry and that's needed in football more than any other pro sport.
By the way, if you're unemployed and reading this or employed in a low-end job with little chance of advancement because of how bad you hear the economy is, or if you used to work for the NFL until staff had to be cut in the past few months, how do you feel about these deals?
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