That’s right folks, Fat Al sacked us like thieves in the night, taking the insane amounts of cash and the extra years that Dan Snyder and the Washington Redskins had to offer. In total, the deal could reach almost $115 million dollars (including incentives) over the next seven years, with a whopping $41 million guaranteed (not to mention that $32 million of it is due in the first 13 months). In the end, Haynesworth took the money and left town, to the surprise of no one (at least not at Titan Sized). He’s been saying all along that he wanted to become the highest paid defensive player in football. It seems that desire was ultimately greater than returning to Tennessee to continue his legacy or to building on what has been started in Nashville over the past few seasons. Whatever his reasoning is, we fully expected this decision, so we have to first and foremost extend our best wishes and warmest regards to a man that has truly changed the way that the defensive tackle position is played. It’s gonna be weird seeing Big Al in anything but Titans blue or Vols orange (night terrors weird!), but at least he’s not going to be terrorizing his former team on a yearly basis. He’s the NFC’s problem now, and more importantly, the NFC East’s problem. Good luck Tony, Donovan and Eli. We look forward to watching you get eaten alive!
The silver lining in all of this is that it will leave the Titans a lot more flexibility to make moves this off-season. Hopefully they will rebound quickly and look to re-sign the guys they feel necessary (Chris Carr and/or Vincent Fuller would be a nice start) and making a splash or two in free agency (Nate Washington or Chris Canty maybe?). We shall see very soon Titans fans.
We’ll have more on this story over the next few days (tampering?!?) as more information comes out, as well as plenty of other free agency news, so stay tuned…
And for the record, this story and it’s headline were up before ESPN’s was. By no means did we break the story, or is the headline original in any way, but it didn’t come from the World Wide Leader in Sports. FYI. It’s 5:30 in the morning, so pardon the cranky.
What do you all think the Titans should do, now that the post-Haynesworth era in Tennessee has officially begun?