Phillip Daniels Clarifies His Remarks on Haynesworth

From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/

We're a bit late with this, but it's worth passing along. You'll recall last week, Redskins defensive end Phillip Daniels made some interesting comments about Albert Haynesworth, who's skipping the team's voluntary offseason activities. He made those comments to Jason Reid and also Mike Wise, who wrote a column that was strong on opinion but didn't hang everything on Daniels.

Later in the week, Daniels visited the team's official message board, ExtremeSkins.com, and said that when talking with reporters, players' words can get "twisted in so many ways."

Daniels didn't deny any specific quotes and there's nothing to gain by parsing words and going back and forth on this, but we did want to share it so you can see that Daniels apparently clarified the remarks he made to Reid and Wise and had some nice things to say about Haynesworth.

Here's Daniels' message board post, which was published Friday night. (And a hat-tip to Redskins blogger Matt Terl, who wrote more on this topic.

"Just wanted to drop in and say that I have read a lot of the comments on here and some of the fans on here really do believe everything that they read. Articles tend to leave things out and when you talk general stuff sometimes it comes out a different way. I am not upset with Albert at all, but the whole team would love for him to be here with us getting ready to win a championship. When a reporter asks a question, we answer it, but sometimes that answer is twisted in so many ways.

"None of the good stuff you say ever comes out in the article. They chop your words as they see fit and in the best way to sell papers or go public. Albert is a key part of the team, and he will be ready to go. Just wanted to clear things up a little for the people who believe everything that writers put out there. Like the old saying goes: Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see."

It's also worth checking out Dan Steinberg on the D.C. Sports Bog. He quoted Daniels from an appearance last week on Lavar Arrington's show on 106.7 The Fan, in which Daniels had both good and bad to say about Haynesworth. I don't think it's twisting anyone's words to say that Daniels likes Haynesworth but wishes he were around Redskins Park right now.

"As teammates, we take him in with open arms," Daniels told Arrington and co-host Chad Dukes. "He's part of this team, he's one of our guys, he's a guy that plays hard and a guy that can help us win. We can't worry about the other side of things, how the coaches feel about the situation or how the media feel about the situation. We take him in with open arms.”

"You know, he's a good dude. You be around him, you go out to lunch with him, you go out to eat with him, he's a great dude. Right now, being 4-12, coming off a 4-12 season, you just want your guys here and let's change this thing, that's all. And not to say it won't change if he comes late, but that's the only thing. The coaches and everybody been trying to negotiate to get him in here and show him the playbooks and do all the things they need to do. I just think he needs to show a little bit in return and get in here and help them out here, and help the team out, and learn this system and let's do it. I mean, I know he don't want to play in a 3-4, but it is what it is, you've got to. You're not going anywhere, so you've got to just come in and play."