Haynesworth Has a Legit, Maybe Serious Excuse: Rhabdomyolysis

Added on Aug 22, 2010 by Eric Galko in

NFL

The media, the Redskins brass, even the coach himself Mike Shanahan have done a great job in painting the picture that Albert Haynesworth is the most greedy, laziest, out of shape football player the league has ever scene. And based on headlines in the D.C. newspapers and the constant critcism on radio stations, it’s been quite effective.

So after Haynesworth missed a few practices this week and complained of “headaches” at practice and in the game on Saturday, Shanahan was in no mood to give Haynesworth the benefit of the doubt.

But this time, it looks as though the Redskins are the evildoers. If Haynesworth is telling the truth, he has a potentially serious reason for his lack of practice time.

It’s called “Rhabdomyolysis”. Here’s what it actually is:

“Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscle fibers resulting in the release of muscle fiber contents (myoglobin) into the bloodstream. Some of these are harmful to the kidney and frequently result in kidney damage.”
–New York Times, Health Guide

So as you can see, it’s quite a serious condition, one that could have resulted from a variety things. No doubt many Haynesworth supporters will blame Shanahan for pushing Haynesworth too hard upon his return. Hey, it may have even come from those repeated attempts at the conditioning test.

Either way, this isn’t much of a joke for Haynesworth, and if this has been the reason he’s been unable to reach 100 percent and the Redskins personnell knew about it, it could pose a potentially large problem between Haynesworth and the Redskins.

Because Shanahan repeatedly called Haynesworth out, saying that he practice simply because of a “headache” and no one from the Redskins chose to point out thte real probelm, I’ll have to defend Haynesworth here.

Symptoms reportedly include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and swelling, and the condition is caused by, among other things, severe exertion or heat exposure. Most of those things are very excusable reasons for being unable to miss practice.

I’m not in Haynesworth’s corner quite yet, but I’ll play it safe and let things get figured out before I pick a side again.