Former Washington linebacker London Fletcher drew got a lot of attention Sunday when he heavily criticized Washington defensive coordinator Jim Haslett during a CBS Sports Network pregame show. Fletcher doubled down on those comments Monday, telling 106.7 The Fan in Washington D.C. that he thinks Haslett is a bad guy, before giving examples.
London Fletcher is still talking about Jim Haslett
London Fletcher didn’t back down from comments he made Sunday calling Haslett “clueless” as a defensive coordinator and accusing him of back stabbing coaches and players.
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"When [Haslett] first came to the Redskins, this was about four years ago, five years ago I guess now," Fletcher said, via the Washington Post. "I received an unsolicited phone call from somebody I respect very well. He asked me about Coach Haslett, asked me what I thought of him. I was like, ‘You know, I think he's pretty cool.' We were in the offseason. The first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Watch him, he's a snake.'
“I was kind of taken aback by that and I decided to watch him for four years. It turned out to be true, where I would see him, or hear him talk bad about a player or talk bad about a coach, but then a couple minutes later, he’s buddy-buddy with these guys, and that happened repeatedly.”
Fletcher played under Haslett for four seasons from 2010-2013. On Sunday, Fletcher said Haslett was “clueless” as a defensive coordinator during that time, and that Haslett would frequently disparage players and coaches behind their backs. During his interview Monday, Fletcher was asked by the host of the program, Eric Bickel, why he is attacking Haslett publicly.
“People are going to feel however they’re going to feel about my statements,” Fletcher said. “For four years, I supported him personally, inside the building and outside the building, unlike him with all the players -- whether it’s players, coaches, where he hasn’t done the same thing. People who know, they all agree with me. You can feel however you want to feel about what I said, but one thing you can’t do is say it’s not true and he can’t say it’s not true.”
Washington's egregiously poor pass defense makes Haslett an easy target these days, regardless of what he is like off the field. Fletcher noticed what many did in Week 13 against the Indianapolis Colts, that players had no trouble getting wide open behind the Washington defense.
"It just came to a point where I was watching that Colts game and I continued to see guys running wide open, what, four or five times?" Fletcher said. "There's nobody in the vicinity of a receiver, play after play, and you continue to hear the same stuff over and over again. One minute it's the change to a 3-4 defense. Next minute it's the salary cap. Next minute it's injuries. Next minute it's Mike Shanahan. Next minute it's this. At what point in time do you say, ‘You know what? It's me. I need to do better.'"
The purported divide between former Washington head coach Mike Shanahan, who was fired after last season, and Haslett has been openly acknowledged in the past. Last February, cornerback DeAngelo Hall claimed that Shanahan micromanaged Haslett, and did not let allow his defensive coordinator to "unleash his full arsenal of play calls." It's true that Washington has been better at getting to the quarterback this season, with 32 sacks so far after recording 36 through 16 games last season. The team has only improved slightly in terms of points per game, however, down to 26.6 from 29.9 last season.
According to Fletcher, many players in Washington’s locker room felt the same way he did.
“Guys aren’t dumb,” Fletcher said. “When you get to the National Football League, one thing you understand is football. You understand when a guy knows what he’s doing and when a guy doesn’t. One thing I tried to do was make sure, hey, let’s just make this work the best way we can. There would be calls that come in and guys were like, ‘Change that call, man,’ or look at it me like, ‘Hey, man, this play call, man.’”
Fletcher ended the interview by saying he would be willing to give his thoughts to Haslett directly.
“If he has a problem, Jim knows my number,” Fletcher said. “My number hasn’t changed, man. It’s been the same for, I don’t know, the last eight, nine years.”
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