It only took one play for Washington Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall to prove ESPN analyst Jon Gruden wrong: The Redskins really haven’t put together a roster of high-character guys.
On Monday night, Gruden said on at least three occasions that Washington coach Mike Shanahan had done a tremendous or outstanding (or perhaps tremendously outstanding) job of rebuilding the Washington roster with players who really care about football. That’s obviously a thinly veiled shot at former Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who Shanahan went to war with all last season. If you listen to Gruden, it’s clear that after just two games this season, Shanahan had completely fixed the Redskins. Only thing left was to print the playoff tickets.
Then the Redskins lost to the Dallas Cowboys 18-16 on Monday and Hall pulled the pin on an emotional hand grenade.
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After getting burned for a 30-yard reception by Dez Bryant on a critical third-and-21 play and adding insult to the situation with a 15-yard facemask penalty, Hall took issue with everything. Most important, Hall took no blame as his 45-yard mistake put Dallas in position for the game-winning field goal. On a team coached by Shanahan, that’s akin flipping off the head coach on national TV.
First, Hall took a page from good friend and former teammate Michael Vick by ripping the official who called the penalty.
“That was a [expletive] terrible call,” Hall told CSNWashington.com. “I told the ref he’s going to [expletive] lose his job. I told the ref, ‘That might have been the worst call of the game.’ He’s going to get some demerit points for that call because that wasn’t no facemask.”
Sadly, Hall is wrong. If you watched the replay of the play, it was a facemask. Furthermore, if you watched the whole game, it wasn’t the only time Bryant burned Hall, who also put himself under the microscope going into this game by saying he wanted to blitz and take a shot at Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo’s broken ribs. That was big talk for a guy who has one sack in his eight-year career.
Second, Hall then took a shot at Washington defensive coordinator Jim Haslett, whose questionable decision to call an all-out blitz on the game-turning third down left Hall in man coverage. Generally, when an offense has that far to go, the call should be for coverage, but Haslett likely surmised that Dallas was in two-down territory.
Either way, Hall shredded him.
“You ain’t supposed to have to [cover for that long], but [expletive] happens,” Hall said.
The Redskins spent much of the game blitzing and held the Cowboys without a touchdown. That didn’t seem to matter to Hall.
“Yeah, but sooner or later, somebody is going [bleeping] figure it out,” Hall said. “You don’t have to be a [bleeping] rocket scientist to figure it out after awhile.”
Hall topped it off with another shot when asked if Haslett called the wrong play.
“You tell me. The result was a first down,” Hall said.
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Of course, all this means Hall can expect an icy reception at practice Wednesday. Moreover, Hall can expect a brutal relationship to unfold with Shanahan unless he apologizes quickly. As has been noted by Yahoo! Sports colleague Les Carpenter, Shanahan is one vindictive guy. Last year, Shanahan seemed to spend more time trying to embarrass Haynesworth than winning games.
If Hall, a guy who doesn’t take criticism well, doesn’t fix this fast, Washington could be headed for another year of infighting.
