Portis compares the Redskins to The U

I rushed up a transcript of Clinton Portis's comments on Tiger Woods Tuesday afternoon, because that was the most colorful part of his weekly appearance on ESPN 980's John Thompson Show. But that probably wasn't the most germane segment to Redskins fans.

Barry Svrluga spoke at length with Portis on Tuesday about his own future; read about that here. But on his radio show, Portis also talked about the future of the Redskins franchise. For example, at one point, he was asked for his thoughts about continuity versus change in the coaches' office.

"I mean, I think that's a decision they've got to make," Portis said, referring to team ownership. "Really, I think the players on our team used to the change, and used to bringing in new people. And I think at the same time, the players on our team would love to just know whoever's coming in or whoever's there's gonna be there. You could do away with all this thought process of Do we got to learn a new system, will we have a new coach, will we have this? But whatever the situation is, we've got to go out and respond. We've got to go out and play for whoever is the head coach, and give it all we've got."

John Thompson asked Portis what he thinks when he hears people saying how much better the team has been playing without its stars; Portis said he has no complaints with that line of discussion.

"I mean, I agree to it," he said. "I think they are playing better. I think they're playing together. I mean, you give guys an opportunity to go out and stand up, and I think these guys are doing that. I think everybody fighting together, nobody gave up, and everybody's playing for an opportunity. I think everybody in the NFL's waiting for an opportunity, and when they finally get it, they go out and give everything they've got."

And finally, Doc Walker brought up the recent ESPN documentary about The U. Doc talked about how Portis's school put together such a long tradition of winning, and then turned it into an NFL question, asking basically how the Redskins could replicate or encourage such continued success.

"Well, if you look at what The U had through those times, it was all guys who enjoyed what they were doing," Portis said. "You know, you had the same character guys, you found guys to plug in when other guys left. When Michael Irvin left, you found Randal Hill and Lamar Thomas and guys who could keep that going. When there was a mass change, you found a guy who could come in who had the same attitude, who had the same goal, who had the same mindset and could adapt to what was going on. And all those guys were from the same background coming in to the University of Miami, and was looking forward to a winning tradition. I think you found the type of guys back then that you knew you could go out and win with, and that was gonna give it everything they had.

"And I think if you look at our roster, we have an assortment of everything, but guys got to come together. I think there's some guys on our team want to have fun, and some guys on our team treat it like business, and some guys on our team who treat it like, Well, hmm, I don't know if I can do that, who worried about being around instead of letting their play do the talking for them. So you've just got to find some group of guys with a common goal.

"You look back to the Ravens when the Ravens was having so much fun, or you look back to Pittsburgh and the talent that they had, running around and what they had. You even look at the Saints now, it looks like the Saints have fun in doing what they're doing....Teams that winning, you've got a bunch of guys jumping around and having fun and enjoying what they're doing. I think you need that."



(washingtonpost.com)