updated 6:48 p.m. ET Oct. 5, 2006

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Justin Hartwig saw the replay of Albert Haynesworth kicking a player in the head and wasn’t surprised.

For good reason: The Carolina Panthers’ center was a victim of Haynesworth’s temper three years ago.

The Tennessee Titans defensive tackle was suspended five games — the longest suspension for an on-field incident in NFL history — for twice stomping on the head of Dallas center Andre Gurode on Sunday

Gurode, who lost his helmet, required 30 stitches to repair gashes on his face.

“It’s kind of unimaginable to think a football player could do that to another football player, but knowing Albert and what he’s done in the past, it really didn’t surprise me at all,” Hartwig said Wednesday. “I wouldn’t put anything past that guy.”

In 2003, when Hartwig played with the Titans, he saw Haynesworth’s temper up close.

“It was the first couple of days of training camp I had been beating him in one-on-one drills. I had stopped him in a bull-rush pass rush drill. When he let up I dropped to my knees and he kicked me in the chest,” Hartwig said. “I grabbed his foot when he kicked me, and another offensive lineman came in and cleaned him out.

“You don’t disrespect another player or a teammate like that.”

Haynesworth’s actions were a hot topic in the Panthers’ locker room Wednesday, with the theme being that Haynesworth violated football’s unwritten code of ethics.

“I wouldn’t want him on my team,” veteran receiver Keyshawn Johnson said. “That’s just me. I don’t condone it. I don’t think it’s cool. If somebody did that on this team when I was here, I’d tell (owner Jerry Richardson) the same thing, ’I don’t want him on my team. I’m not going to play with a dude doing that on my team.”’

Hartwig stressed it was not an isolated incident and he never got along with Haynesworth while he was in Tennessee.

“I never really talked to him. He’s the kind of guy I stayed away from. He loses his mind sometimes,” said Hartwig, who signed a free-agent deal with Carolina in the offseason. “When he’s getting beat, he tends to lose control of his emotions. He gets irrational and doesn’t think straight.

“He would lose his cool and hit somebody after the play, stuff like that when they’re not looking. I got into it with him almost every year.”

Hartwig said Haynesworth was reprimanded several times by the Titans for practice scuffles that were kept from the media. That history is one reason Hartwig questioned the length of his suspension.

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“I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility to suspend him for the whole season,” Hartwig said. “It’s the most intentional thing to hurt somebody I’ve ever seen. That crosses every sports and moral boundary you can think of.”

Hartwig returned to practice Wednesday for the first time since suffering a pulled groin in the season-opening loss to Atlanta. He’s listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against Cleveland.

But while Hartwig was hopeful he’d return Sunday, he wasn’t sure if Haynesworth has much of a future in the NFL.

“Sometimes a guy never learns,” Hartwig said.

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