A T.O. with T.H.

Last week the Washington Redskins once again proved themselves the champions of the offseason. Owner Dan Snyder signed free agent defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth to a huge deal.

Unfortunately, the Redskins continually have won the months of January through March, but that really doesn’t mean much considering the season doesn’t begin until August.

It got me thinking about how teams in the NFL win championships.

Teams like the Redskins and Cowboys have tried to win through buying talent in the offseason. This is an interesting path which has worked before, but not often.

The good side is that you have a chance to have huge names, which equals ticket and merchandise sales. It also gives you a chance to do what the Florida Marlins baseball team did in 1997 and win a quick title.

But there is far larger downside.

Taking this plan can royally screw up any chemistry you do have. Bringing in names like Deion Sanders, Terrell Owens or Adam “Pacman” Jones can create locker-room chaos and ruin a talented team, like the 2008 Cowboys for example.

It also creates individual personalities which leads to less team, and therefore you have to end up splitting it up anyway.

So what do the winners do?

Teams like the Giants, Steelers, Patriots and Colts do something most teams in pro sports do not do: They build through the draft.

Let’s take the quarterbacks.

Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Eli and Peyton Manning all were drafted and nurtured by these teams. In the cases of Brady and Roethlisberger, they were not expected to be winners, but these teams scouted well and got lucky.

The fact of the matter is that all these teams do very little in the offseason, and most of their off season deals involve getting extra draft picks.

The equation for success is pretty simple. Hire good scouts, find winners in the draft, eliminate head cases and hire a coach who gets it.

Until the Redskins and Cowboys do this, they won’t have a shot at winning a title or even make a playoff run.

Despite this rant, I don’t think the Haynesworth signing is a bad one. I just hope paying a defensive tackle more than $100 million is worth not taking care of other needs.

And by the way, I bet the Cowboys end up being one of the teams trying to sign Michael Vick. So look at the bright side Washington, you could be the Dallas Cowboys.