Washington Redskins’ Albert Haynesworth has finally passed the team’s conditioning test. On Saturday morning he conquered the 300-yard shuttle run and was finally allowed to suit up and practice. Head coach Mike Shanahan had kept him from practicing with the team until he passed the test and stood true to his word that made Haynesworth, a two-time All-Pro with a $100 million contract, the storyline of the Redkins’ camp.

“He probably doesn’t like me very much right now,” Shanahan said, “but I’m not here to be liked. I’m here to get him to play, and hopefully he’ll play at a very high level.”

It appears as though all the attempts to pass the test took its toll on Haynesworth because he could not make it through the entire practice. After only completing some defensive drills, he found himself as a spectator with a huge wrap on his sore left knee. The knee problem has been aggravating Haynesworth for several years now and doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon. The Redskins will take Sunday off and when they return on Monday, coaches say they expect him to make through the entire practice.

“Last year he said he was having problems every third or fourth day with the knee, so there is a problem there,” Shanahan said. “That’s why we’re going to make sure that he gets treatment.”

The soreness in his knee kept him from trying to complete the tests for four straight days. Bu now, he has done what was asked and coaches and players are relieved that they will not be answering the distracting questions regarding Haynesworth any longer.

“Today’s the first day I saw him dig down deep and go get it,”defensive coordinator Jim Haslett said. “He was going to make that test one way or another, or him and I might have been fighting on the field today. He was going to make the test. I said ‘I’m sick of seeing you at 4 o’clock in the morning.’ I’d wake up and see his face on TV. You see him on TV all the time.”

Haynesworth had been staying away from reporters throughout training camp before he passed the test but he did have this to say on Saturday.

“The test is over, and now it’s back to playing football,” he said. “I want to thank all the fans for coming out and still supporting me and still wearing [No.] 92 jerseys and still believing in me, so y’all have a good day.”

Now, he must focus on learning the team’s new 3-4 defense, one that he did not want. More importantly, he is far behind in grasping the new defense and has a lot of catching up to do. The Redskins open up the 2010 NFL season against the Dallas Cowboys on September 12. They have their odds set at 25/1 to win Super Bowl XLV according to NFL sportsbooks.