Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan usually takes the proverbial high road in his public comments and acknowledged as much in his press conference on Thursday.

But when confronted with disparaging comments made by former NFL player Albert Haynesworth about Shanahan's leadership style and the Redskins organization, he felt the time to set the record straight when asked directly to respond by a member of the media.

His statement began in generalities, but he restarted his answer, gearing it specifically to Haynesworth:

"I'll be specific, since you asked me that question.

"Let me put it this way: the only people I really haven't gotten along with since I've been a coach, a head coach and assistant coach, is someone that's lazy. No. 2, when somebody is lazy, and they may lack character, or they're lazy and they lack passion for the game, those are really the only people I haven't gotten along with, as a head coach or an assistant coach.

"So that's what you're looking for. When I take a look at, through my years, of people that have been lazy or have lacked passion for their job, they don't go into the next year, and when they do, they don't last the next year.

"So the people that I look at that come back and complain, or do some of those things that you do when you don't get along with somebody as a head coach or assistant coach, it usually falls into one of those couple areas: lazy, lack of passion, and a lot of times a lack of character.

"And he fits all three.

"You usually take the high road as much as you can and I usually do. But I thought he's been talking quite a bit over the last couple years, so I thought I'd at least be honest with you guys and tell you how I feel."

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