Rocky Top Talk, a Tennessee Volunteers community

Patriots waived DT Albert Haynesworth. The Boston Globe's Greg Bedard pointed out Monday night that Haynesworth turned in three of the worst plays ever seen by a defensive tackle in Week 9. Haynesworth got "ragdolled easy," pancaked, and then fell down with a soft shove against the Giants, leading to a sideline confrontation with DL coach Pepper Johnson. Haynesworth still has the talent to excel, but his heart isn't it. It will be interesting to see if Eagles DL coach Jim Washburn, who had Haynesworth in Tennessee, will push for a waiver claim.

Dan Pompei's source within the Patriot's front office is saying that "Coach Bill Belichick will use the controversial players to help control and send a message to his locker room." and cut them by the end of preseason. If this is true, somewhere Joe Banner just cracked an evil smile as he fires up his Blackberry. Don't forget that our D-line coach is a guy that Haynesworth has gone on record saying that he'd take a pay cut to play for again.

Bill Belicheck has said that Albert Haynesworth isn't ready to practice for the New England Patriots, i.e., he has failed his conditioning test for the Patriots, even though he passed the physical. Once a lazy player, always a lazy player. Any player who cares about his performance puts in the effort to arrive ready to go.

Early Saturday morning Michael Bush was arrested for driving under the influence.. and while Yahoo! reports the incident "isn't going to make a great impression on potential NFL employers," I beg to differ, as I'm sure Mike Brown is listening attentively to these events as they transpire. In related news, Fat Albert is being formally charged with assault after an incident involving road rage on February 2nd. He will be in court next month... and maybe with Bush in stripes come August??? here's hoping.

Bruce Allen says it was a coincidence that Albert Haynesworth’s four-game suspension came with four games left in the season. Allen said he was the one who informed owner Dan Snyder that Haynesworth was being suspended, but only after the decision had been made.

"I don't think I've ever had a player just tell me he didn't want to play "Okie" defense [the base 3-4] and then later say he didn't want to play nickel versus the run, 'Just play me on third downs,'" Haslett said. "No, I've never had that before. And we tried to accommodate him. It's a shame because he's athletic enough. He can do almost anything he wants. Obviously, he didn't want to do it. Good athletes can do a lot of different things. Basketball players -- guards can play forwards, they can play different positions. I watch throughout the league, I see wide receivers do the 'Wildcat.' I think to myself, 'If you're a good enough athlete, you can do almost anything you want. You've just got to want to do it.'"

This never-ending drama has been the dominant story in DC for almost an entire year. Part of me was hoping that the fat load would stick around just so I can be further entertained by all the hand-wringing, but it's about time this saga came to a close.

More bad news.