I wasn't able to attend Albert Haynesworth's JCPenney United Way take-a-player-to-school event today, but the folks at Redskins.com TV were. What you get here is Haynesworth picking up his student-for-the-day Victor at his house and riding to school with him in a limo.

This is mildly amusing, of course, but it's really significant because it actually shows some more of the human side of Haynesworth. He's shown it a bit here and there -- with the hand sanitizer, or the hazing of the rookies -- but never quite so calmly. The Redskins Broadcast Network will have more of this later in the week, and there were other cameras onhand at the school, but I'm pretty sure this is the only place you'll see Haynesworth sitting in the limo talking to a fifth-grade boy about his dating prospects.

Since I started working here, it feels like there's been more player movement at punter than at any other position. And somehow it always brings the wackiness. From the early days of "Durant Brooks is a weapon" last season through Ryan Plackemeier -- dubbed "Muffintop" by the Mr. I gang -- to Hunter "Greatest Holder and Shoe Model and William the Bruce Impersonator and Christian Rocker of All Time" Smith and his former-bartender substitute, it's been a pretty lively bunch. And that doesn't even account for Shaun Suisham's brief, heroic turn at the position.

Well, the shuffling continued today, as Smith aggravated his groin injury and the team worked out (and plans to sign) Sam Paulescu to punt this week. Paulescu's immediate claims to fame are leveling Tampa Bay's Clifton Smith (in the video above) and helping to determine the height of the videoboard in the new Dallas stadium.

I'm sure we'll find out other fascinating specifics when the guy officially signs on, likely tomorrow. Something to look forward to.

Other practice notes....

For obvious reasons, there were a lot of quotes coming out of the Redskins locker room today that dealt with owner Daniel Snyder's statement yesterday that he feels disappointed and embarrassed with the first half of the season. That was not a surprise.

Santana Moss discusses the owner feeling disappointed:
"I think we all are. It's not a good feeling to be who we are and where we are right now. We know it's people out there that pay a lot of money and that respect what we've been trying to do, and you hate to let 'em down. But at the same time, I hope they understand that we're not TRYING to, you know what I mean?"

Albert Haynesworth is not exactly known for inspirational speeches. In fact, when the Redskins signed him this offseason, the main knocks against him were that he isn't a big effort guy, he takes plays off, and he's not exactly a leader.

Having watched him for about half a season now, I would completely disagree with the first assertion (he exerts tremendous effort), conditionally disagree with the second (exerting that effort does cause him to take himself out of the game), and the third ... well, that's complicated.

After last week's loss to the Chiefs, Haynesworth gave a thundering locker room speech that seemed meant to inspire and terrify his teammates in equal measure. It wasn't the classic motivational locker room oration, but it certainly displayed the kind of fire the Redskins are occasionally accused of lacking.

This week was ... something of a different story.

I wrote yesterday about Albert Haynesworth's new role as official hand sanitizer of the Washington Redskins, mainly because it was the most upbeat thing that's happened here in about a month. Aside from a couple of grainy iPhone photos, though, that post wasn't what you'd call a rich multimedia experience.

Fortunately for all of us, Comcast SportsNet had an extra camera at Redskins Park, so -- while everyone else was paying attention to whatever head coach Jim Zorn was talking about -- they were able to capture this riveting footage of Albert Haynesworth maintaining a secure perimeter against disease.

So there were quite a few guys missing from an unseasonably warm practice today: Chris Cooley, gone for family reasons. Cornelius Griffin, just getting "a little more rest," according to head coach Jim Zorn. "He's gonna be fine."

Clinton Portis "did not practice," Zorn said. "He's got a sprained ankle." Albert Haynesworth was out with a sprained ankle as well -- Zorn said he expects both of them to play Monday -- but Haynesworth found a new way to keep himself occupied after practice, because of the reason that Kareem Moore and Chris Horton were missing.

"Kareem and Chris Horton," Zorn said, "they had a fever this morning. So instead of trying to get them through and have them be around the other players, we sent them home." Zorn had also advised all the players to be especially careful about using hand sanitizer, especially in light of what happened in Cleveland.

So Haynesworth posted himself at the door after practice with a squeeze bottle of hand sanitizer, and proceeded to sanitize every staff member, coach, player, or media member who walked in, even chasing down people who tried to use other doors.

"Since I'm not at practice," Haynesworth shrugged, "I'm the official building sanitizer." I certainly didn't see anyone willing to turn him down.

Well, I'm glad I posted my enthusiastic defense of hazing this morning, since the high point of the afternoon practice was Albert Haynesworth, Phillip Daniels, and Cornelius Griffin -- mainly Haynesworth -- doing an incredibly thorough soak-and-tape on all the remaining rookies at once.

And, at this point, there's little doubt that Haynesworth brings an element to this team that we haven't seen in awhile.

• Jason Cole at Yahoo! Sports has a fascinating profile of DT Albert Haynesworth. From an on-the-field standpoint, the most interesting thing is just how good a lot of people believe Haynesworth can be:
  

"There aren't many times when you have a player like that hit free agency, a guy who can change the balance of power," one long-time agent said. "You've had Reggie White and Deion Sanders [with San Francisco and Dallas], just a couple of guys with that kind of talent [who were able] to switch teams. They helped their teams win Super Bowls. That's huge and it helps the case for the players.

"Most of the time, the players who hit free agency aren't truly premier guys. It just doesn't happen. That's why a lot of people look back at free agents and say, 'Oh, that guy was a bust.' He wasn't really a bust, he just wasn't worth all the excitement that was created. It's a real perception thing."

Apparently Albert Haynesworth did an interview with Adam Schein and Jim Miller on SIRIUS NFL Radio the other day. I wouldn't know, because -- being the sort of ancient person who remembers the Journey arcade game -- I still use terrestrial radio, with static and commercials and all of that.

Fortunately for all of us, a poster over at NFL Spot dot com has transcribed a few of the comments, with a specific focus on how Haynesworth claimed to be "too big" for Nashville. This will no doubt cause all sorts of fuss and furor with Titans fans, but if you read the actual quotes, it seems clear that he means "too big" in the sense of "outgrown the place where he spent his youth," not in the sense of "this town cannot contain all of my awesomeness."

Here, judge for yourselves:

Haynesworth on his move to the Redskins via a $100 million contract: "Believe it or not, I guess I don't have a ton of the pressure on me. I feel like I was almost getting – I don't want it to seem like I've got a big head, but... too big for Nashville."

Haynesworth on why he believes Nashville was more pressure on him than the Redskins market: "I try to explain it to people so they can understand it... say you're in grade school... You stay in the same elementary school. You could be this young kid, coming in at six years old. You kind of do some things as far as misbehaving, or whatever. You're just a young kid. But when you get to the fourth, fifth grade, you've kind of grown out of it. But you still carry around that and you're still dealing with those same teachers and they still view you as that kid in kindergarten. That's kind of what I felt in Nashville. No matter what I did, they always wanted to refer to me how I was when I first came into the league at 20 years old. Now in D.C., I feel like I have a clean slate.

"I'm kind of glad I didn't work out something there because it was time for me to go."

One last bit of anecdotal observation from Monday night's trip to Six Flags: people, even die-hard Redskins fans, do not yet recognize big-ticket free agent signee Albert Haynesworth. This was driven home over the course of two separate but similar incidents.

First, the autograph mob surrounding Mike Williams, pictured above. Mike Williams, as has been thoroughly documented, is an enormous man. At this point, his return and rapid weight loss may very well be the most-told tale of this Redskins offseason, narrowly outshining the signing of Haynesworth (more important, but lacks the same human-interest element) and the endless quarterback rumors (more salacious, but ultimately did not amount to much).

And the point of that well-told story is that Mike Williams has worked his way all the way down to huge from massive. Numerically, here's how it shakes out: Williams stands 6-7 and is down to a reported 385 pounds. Haynesworth is 6-6, 350. Those 35 pounds may not sound like much, but you know it when you see it.

So I was a little perplexed by the number of people on the fringes of this signing who were saying things like, "That Haynesworth is even bigger than I thought," and, "I can't believe Albert Haynesworth can move as fast as they say when he's that big."

I didn't think much more of it at the time. The folks in attendance knew there were Redskins in the park; they saw a notably large, unfamiliar-looking dude, and they decided it was Haynesworth. Fair enough.