National Football League

Haynesworth: Redskins aren't using me properly

Published Dec. 25, 2009 12:00 a.m. ET

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Washington Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth unloaded on the team after being booted from practice Friday.

Coach Jim Zorn told reporters Friday he sent home Haynesworth for disciplinary reasons. Zorn says Haynesworth will still play Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys but might not start. The player reportedly arrived late and disregarded an instruction to not go out onto the practice field.

Haynesworth signed a seven-year, $100 million contract with Washington, with $41 million in guaranteed money, during the offseason. Frustrated with losing and coaching decisions, he may not "survive another season in this system if it stays the way it is," Haynesworth told The Washington Post.

Haynesworth said he is unhappy with veteran defensive coordinator Greg Blache's disciplined scheme and believes the money the Redskins have spent on him will be wasted unless he is given freedom to "create havoc" as he did in seven seasons with the Tennessee Titans.

"If they keep this system the way it is, then they would label Albert Haynesworth a bust who didn't live up to the contract," Haynesworth told the paper. "Everybody would say he just took the money and ran off. And I'm still playing as hard as I possibly can. But you can only do so much within the system that's put around you."

After a 45-12 loss to the New York Giants on Monday, Haynesworth said the team lacks leadership.

Asked whether those comments contributed to Friday's disciplinary action, Zorn replied, "Not at all."

"It happens around the NFL, and I see (these things) handled all the time,"Zorn said. "And hopefully I'm handling things in the proper way."

Haynesworth believes that Zorn used his late arrival Friday as an excuse to discipline him for recent criticism of the coaching staff.

"They're all against me or whatever," he said. "But I know what I'm saying is right because I've been in a scheme that works."