There’s nothing more common in life than the human “worker bee” buzzing along, doing what he’s programmed to do. And, unfortunately, most people live like worker bees, working for a Boss Bee because it’s simple, it’s easy. However, although rare, not everyone in life wants to live their life playing follow the leader and falling in line with the rest of the sheep.
Some people are brave, they break away from the pack and refuse to be bullied into being a conformist, especially when the bully has no integrity or doesn’t have their best interest at heart.
So recently the NFL’s Washington Redskins suspended controversial defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth for the rest of the season without pay.
Head coach Mike Shanahan’s defense has lived at the bottom of the league this year, but he hasn’t given any consideration to changing anything, including switching back to the four-three defensive set in which Haynesworth, one of the best defensive lineman in the league, thrives in.
What Shanahan, Redskin coaches and team officials have done all season is to try and portray Haynesworth as lazy, a drunk, stubborn, and unintelligent. This controversial relationship started in training camp when Haynesworth expressed his issues with the new defense and was late to training camp. Having signed a huge seven-year, $100 million contract because he is such a great player, apparently, Haynesworth wrongly believed he had some leverage to change things or at least talk about the issue with the coaches. He was wrong.
(Hmmm, what would you do if you felt you were being set up for failure in your career?)
Responding to media reports that he was out drinking right before his benching, Haynesworth denied being drunk and claimed he went out to talk to a friend, something he does frequently. Upon returning home, feeling sick — not drunk, Haynesworth wanted and expected to play that week.
There were also reports that Haynesworth was late to a meeting, and did not have a great practice in another instance; however, these are not reasons to suspend a player. Nonetheless, they are the type of juvenile excuses Shanahan conjures up when he wants to get rid of someone.
Is Haynesworth just a bad guy, and Shanahan a good guy?
Well, Redskin quarterback Donovan McNabb has been nothing but a “goody two shoes” his entire career and look what Shanahan did to him: benched him, then lied on him, implying he was lazy and dumb. And now he’s benched him for the rest of the season (he’s actually the third-string quarterback), treating him the same way he’s treated Haynesworth.
So the message to the team is: if Shanahan will humiliate McNabb, the franchise quarterback, and a $100 million defensive lineman, then nobody is worthy of respect and nobody’s job is safe.
The truth is that the Redskins organization, led by Shanahan, didn’t like Haynesworth questioning the defense being played and knew that Shanahan’s no-nonsense personality was not going to ever gibe with Haynesworth so they simply decided to save a few bucks this season and vilify Haynesworth by leaking negative information to the media; thus, they could appear justified in benching him and eventually trade him.
But even worse than the lynching the Redskin organization and media did on Haynesworth is the fact that some of his Uncle Tom teammates repeatedly criticized him, backing up “boss man” Shanahan like clockwork.
Getting fed up with the backstabbing from his teammates, Haynesworth, and rightly so, said “If they have something to say, they should come [say it] to my face.”
You know, I realized a long time ago that the most cowardly, spineless Black people are Black professional athletes. They’ve been pampered all their lives because of their talent so they will never do anything to upset their White caretaker agents, coaches, team administrators and owners. These players threw Haynesworth under the bus because they couldn’t relate to the self-respect he was expressing even if it slapped them in the face.
Black men must understand that people are always going to try to disrespect them because they’re threatened by your intelligence and excellence; you don’t fit the profile of the Black man displayed on the nightly news crime segment. Message to all Black men: you cannot take your possessions, money, awards, or popularity with you when you die – and die you will – so stop butt-kissing and being afraid to speak up.
So, Black man, take some advice: Just be a man, and GOD will take care of everything else, no matter if “they” take your job or not – you will always land on your feet when you act like a freakin’ man.
