NFL Trade Rumors: Redskins Trade Albert Haynesworth to New England Patriots

It's finally happened—the one thing that no one said would happen but had to happen. 

Albert Haynesworth has been traded.

To whom, you might ask—surprisingly, the New England Patriots have decided to take the No. 92 car out for a spin.

Compensation for Haynesworth is a fifth-round pick in the 2013 draft.  Honestly, I'm surprised the Redskins got such a high pick for a player they were probably going to cut anyway.

What puzzles me about New England stepping up the be the Redskins' dance partner in this trade is that they run a 3-4 defense as well.

I know Bill Belichick has become the reformer of ill-tempered NFL players, but the main reason Haynesworth became a problem in D.C. was because of the switch to the 3-4.

Now this could just be the paranoid conspiracy theorist in me, but what if New England traded for Haynesworth just to trade him to Philly?

After all, the Redskins weren't going to send Big Al to the Eagles, and this seems like the kind of deal the scheming Patriots would go for: Grab Haynesworth on the cheap and then trade him to a team that really wants him but wasn't going to get him from the Redskins.

As a Skins fan, I hope that's not the case and that Bruce Allen did what the Packers did a few years ago when they traded Brett Favre to the Jets, and that's put in a no-trade clause to our division rival.

We'll have to see, but I won't be surprised if Haynesworth ends up in Philly by August 1 and the Patriots end up with a third-round pick.