The NFL suspended Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth without pay for five games on Monday for kicking Dallas Cowboys guard Andre Gurode in the face Sunday when Gurode was on the ground without his helmet.
The suspension is the longest for on-field behavior in NFL history.
“There is absolutely no place in the game, or anywhere else, for the inexcusable action that occurred in yesterday’s Titans-Cowboys game,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday.
Haynesworth was penalized and ejected after kicking Gurode following a 5-yard touchdown run by Dallas’ Julius Jones in a 45-14 Dallas win.
Gurode needed 30 stitches to repair the cuts left by the 6-foot-6-inch, 320-pound tackle’s cleats, and plans to talk with his family about whether or not to press charges, his agent told Nashville police Monday.
Haynesworth was distraught and remorseful afterward, staring at pictures of his two small children on his cell phone in the locker room.
“I don’t want them to have my last name and to think their dad was actually a dirty player,” Haynesworth said. “What I did out there was disgusting. I just lost control for a second. It’s an emotional game out there, but that should never happen.
“I feel like I disgraced the game, disgraced my team and disgraced my last name.”
Titans teammate Robaire Smith said he has had opponents intentionally stick their fingers in his eyes and mouth, among other things, and that fans have no idea what goes on during games.
“Every game you play in this league is dirty,” the defensive tackle said. “Just so happened [Haynesworth] got caught. Man, there’s so much stuff that goes on in the trenches I’m not even going to get started. He didn’t do anything any dirtier than what’s been going on for years in the trenches.”
No timetable
Although the league has acted quickly during the last two weeks in suspending Cincinnati linebacker Odell Thurman and now Haynes-worth, there is still no word on the future of Bears cornerback Ricky Manning Jr., whose two interceptions Sunday night played a big role in the Bears’ 37-6 rout of Seattle.
Manning pleaded no contest to a felony assault charge last week after being involved in an incident in April in which a restaurant patron was beaten. It happened while Manning was on probation for a previous assault charge.
Thurman was arrested for DWI last week while serving a four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy. The league immediately increased his suspension to a year.
Quarterbacks on deck
After treating Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck with no respect Sunday night, here are the next four quarterbacks the Bears face: Buffalo’s J.P. Losman, Arizona rookie Matt Leinart, San Francisco second-year player Alex Smith and Miami’s struggling Daunte Culpepper.
Losman is having the best season so far and outplayed Minnesota’s Brad Johnson on Sunday in Buffalo’s 17-12 win, completing 22 of 32 passes with no interceptions against a good Vikings defense.
Leinart replaced Kurt Warner on Sunday in a 32-10 loss to Atlanta.
“That’s not an emotional decision,” coach Dennis Green said. “I had a lot of time to think about it while we were losing very badly.”
Warner fumbled two more times, giving him 10 in four games (losing three), and also threw an interception returned for a touchdown.
“That last one, you just have to throw the ball,” Green said. “Kurt just doesn’t throw the ball away. In this offense, if it’s not there you’ve got to throw the ball away.”
Smith and the 49ers were shut out 41-0 by the Kansas City Chiefs and backup quarterback Damon Huard.
Culpepper is 1-3 since joining the Dolphins, where new offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey is coming under fire as his offense averages only 13 points a game.
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No wonder the Bears didn’t think they had quarterback problems during a preseason in which Rex Grossman was so unproductive fans were booing him and calling for Brian Griese.
On guard again
Buffalo right guard and former Bear Chris Villarrial has a high ankle sprain that occurred in the Bills’ win and probably will miss Sunday’s reunion against the Bears.
He was replaced by Duke Preston from Illinois. Buffalo’s left guard is Tutan Reyes, who was Carolina’s right guard last season.
Problems at guard are ominous when facing Bears defensive tackles Tommie Harris, Ian Scott and Tank Johnson.
The Seahawks had problems as right guard Chris Gray, another ex-Bear, played despite being listed as questionable with a knee injury. Left guard Chris Spencer was starting only his second game since replacing injured Floyd Womack, who had replaced departed All-Pro Steve Hutchinson. Harris is most often opposite the left guard.
Said Seattle coach Mike Holmgren: “Chris Spencer is a good player, but he had his hands full in there.”
Emergency landing
The Seahawks’ charter plane made an emergency landing early Monday morning to get medical care for Ray Rhodes, a special defensive assistant and former Packers and Philadelphia Eagles head coach.
Holmgren said upon his return Monday from Chicago that the stop in Rapid City, S.D., was because Rhodes felt faint.
The stop was made on the advice of team physicians on board. Rhodes was taken from the airport to a hospital in an ambulance.
Holmgren said dehydration and Rhodes not eating much on Sunday apparently caused him to feel faint.
Rhodes spent the rest of the night at a hospital under the watch of team physician Brad Shoup and then flew back to Seattle on a commercial jet Monday afternoon. The team arrived in Seattle at 5 a.m.
Rhodes, who turns 56 this month, had two stroke-like episodes last fall when he was still the team’s defensive coordinator.
“Had it been someone else–I don’t know about this, I’m guessing–we could have flown all the way back to Seattle,” Holmgren said. “He’s OK.”
Holmgren emphasized that Rhodes’ symptoms did not appear to be related to the game–a lopsided loss that the notoriously intense Rhodes undoubtedly despised.
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