There were some shockwaves sent through Redskins Nation last week when Willie Parker suggested that the organization was more concerned about partying than winning. These were strange comments, and several Redskins players have said so. The latest is DeAngelo Hall, who admitted he hadn't even heard them yet.
"It's my first time hearing that. Wow," Hall said on "The Mike Wise Show" on 106.7 The Fan. "Willie was a guy who kind of stayed to himself. I don't remember him coming up to me, talking about going to any parties or anything like that. I know Larry Johnson is a bit of a partier. I know those guys might have went out a couple of times. But Larry wasn't even a part of this team. I don't know where that comment came from. Totally left field."
Hall then proceeded to sort-of-but-not-really shoot down Parker's claims.
"There are definitely some guys that do like to party. But I don't think that's indicative of the nucleus of this team," he said. "It is [more accepted when you're winning.] But at the same time, I don't party during the season anyway. There's a lot of guys who like to put their names on parties after games and stuff like that. To each their own."
"If that's how they choose to do it, then that's how they choose to do it," he continued. "[But] when I'm not playing, I'm at home with the kids or something like that, or trying to get better. I think that's the consensus of a lot of the guys in that locker room."
Not exactly the most convincing response, but I appreciate his honesty, and I frankly don't have a huge issue with athletes partying as long as they bring it on the field. Hall also discussed Albert Haynesworth's situation, comparing it to what he went through in his final days with the Falcons.
"I kind of had -- not a similar situation -- but kind of ran into some things my last year in Atlanta. Me and coach [Bobby] Petrino just didn't get along. I wanted to go left, and he wanted me to go right. I wanted to go up, and he wanted me to go down. For whatever reason, we just clashed all the time -- practice, meetings, during games. No matter what I did, it wasn't good enough. No matter what he did, it wasn't good enough for me either. Everybody ended up seeing Petrino's true colors at the end of the day, but by that time, the damage had already been done. I was already on my way out of there. For what it's worth, I think my reputation kind of took a shot."
He compared his situation with Haynesworth's year-long fight with Mike Shanahan, and said that he doesn't see Haynesworth with the team next season.
"There was something between him and Mike Shanahan where, for whatever reason, those two guys couldn't coexist, and one of them has to go. At the end of the day, it's going to be Haynesworth. We paid coach Shanahan a lot of money to be the coach of this football team, and that's what's going to happen."