Albert Haynesworth says brain aneurysms nearly ended his life
Former All-Pro defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, once one of the NFL’s highest-paid players and still only 34 years old and four years removed from his last game, told a Nashville radio station 104.5 The Zone on Thursday that nearly died from brain aneurysms last November.
"Nobody really knows, I almost died. I had two brain aneurysms that were nearly rupturing. I went and talked to my doctor in Florida, and he was like, 'Man, your blood pressure is through the roof. I'm going to admit you.' They did a lot of tests and found the aneurysm that was rupturing at that point."
Haynesworth said surgery to repair the problems led to an 11-day stay in the intensive care unit of a Fort Lauderdale Hospital. He told the radio station that he has had memory problems since:
"It sounds crazy, but sometimes, writing my own name, I kind of forget the signature of how I normally write. Or sending long texts, my words get backwards. It's crazy, but hopefully as time goes on, I get better."
Haynesworth was a two-time first-team All-Pro with the Titans before signing a seven-year, $100 million contract with the Redskins in 2009. He started 12 games in his first season in Washington and none in his second before being released and finishing his career in a 2011 season split between the Patriots and Buccaneers.
He is known today as one of the NFL’s biggest free-agent busts and later said playing for the Redskins made him lose his passion for football. Haynesworth told the radio station that doctors don’t know whether playing the game caused the condition that nearly ended his life at an age where many players are still in uniform:
"They can't say. They said I could have had it, but they said football definitely didn't help. I don't really know. I have no idea. I'm not a doctor. I don't want to blame it on football, and I don't want to say, 'Hey, it didn't have anything to do with it.'"
