Patiently waiting for Patriots DT Albert Haynesworth to no longer be "day-to-day"

Remember Albert Haynesworth?

The New England Patriots signed him a few weeks ago. There was a lot of hubbub about it, since he’s a known dirt-bag and a former defensive player of the year.

You may recall that Haynesworth didn't practice right away. When he finally did practice it was only for a few minutes, but he did show flashes of the dominance that convinced the Washington Redskins to give him insane money a few years back.

Haynesworth took a pay-cut and told the media he was a changed man who wanted desperately to rehabilitate his image while a member of the New England Patriots.

His job, he said, was to kill the quarterback.

After all that, Haynesworth disappeared. He hasn't practiced, he hasn't played, he hasn't been seen by anyone. Nobody knows where he is, why he's gone, or when he'll be back. 

Bill Belichick was asked about Haynesworth’s status and whether or not he expects his big defensive tackle to be ready for the season opener during his conference call with the media on Friday.

“He's day-to-day.”

OK, but is he in Gillette Stadium somewhere? Does anyone know where he is? Should we put out an APB? He’s a big dude, someone must have seen him. Right? 

“All the players are here.”

There is no more frustrating thing in the world than trying to pry injury information out of Bill Belichick.

The absence of Haynesworth has not gone unnoticed by the Boston media. Some have questioned whether or not we’ll see him play a down in a Patriots uniform.

After all, the defense looked pretty good without him Thursday night.

But that line of thinking is awfully shortsighted. To use a baseball analogy, that’s like saying “We already have a pretty good line-up. We really don’t need that Adrian Gonzalez guy?”

Well, maybe it’s not a perfect analogy. Unless Gonzalez cleat-stomped an opponent’s head and celebrated by sexually harassing a waitress without me hearing about it.

But you get the point. The Patriots defensive line looked pretty good Thursday night, but it would have looked even better with a healthy, motivated Haynesworth.

So let’s quit the “we don’t need Haynesworth, release the bum” talk and start up the “think about how good the Patriots will be once Haynesworth is ready” talk.

Because a healthy Albert Haynesworth is one of the few guys in the NFL who can do things like this: