Portis on Daniel Snyder: "It's not him"

I kind of made a big deal out of Clinton Portis's comments earlier this season that Daniel Snyder was on the verge of losing his fan base, so it's only fair to highlight Portis's defense of ownership on Tuesday's John Thompson Show. Making his weekly appearance on ESPN 980, Portis included an unprompted word in Snyder's favor, saying "It's not him."

The question and the answer were both long, but I'll include both in full, as part of the special D.C. Sports Bog Stenographer Special.

"How many times Clinton can we start over and get some continuity?" a clearly frustrated John Thompson asked. "It just appears to me that it's always, in the middle of season and the end of the season, a change of personnel, starting over, some reevaluation or something. How the hell can there ever be continuity among you guys with all these changes that are made?"

Portis--who seemed unfazed by the move to have Sherm Lewis call plays--offered a lengthy response that seemed....well, odd, anyhow.

"I think it's just gonna come down to not worrying about the media," Portis said. "You know, everybody want input around here. Being in Washington, D.C. and having so much focus on this team, everybody want their way. It's a fan that want Jason Campbell benched, that want Colt Brennan to play right now, and Colt Brennan injured. You know, it's a fan that want me benched and they should have drafted Knowshon Moreno from Denver; look, they didn't, Denver did. It's always, 'Oh, this could work.'...

"Every time you look at headlines, every time you see a story, it's 'The Redskins suck, the Redskins can't do it, the Redskins down again.' We're 2-4, we've still got a lot of football left. Philly was 2-4 last year and went to the NFC Championship game. Philly did that as a team. I'm sure their fans was killing them, the papers was killing them, but somehow, some way, you've got to keep searching and keep trying to find a way until you find it.

"And I think the pressure [is] on Mr. Snyder, and he want to win so bad. And everybody's [saying] 'Oh, get him out of here, he need to sell the team, he's what's [wrong].' It's not him. I think he brings in everybody that he could possibly bring in that he think gonna help this team. I think if you look at the talent on our team, we've got a lot of talent. We've got great players. We've gotta go out and do it. It's no coaches playing for us, it's nobody in the front office playing for us. The scout evaluators, whoever they bring in, I mean, they evaluate talent. We've got talent. It's just the execution. So it's on us."

Thompson tried following up by asking who was making the decisions, and based on what criteria, and whether the media was influencing decisions, but Portis returned to his theme.

"I'm just telling you, on our behalf as players, the conversation that you hear," he said. "I mean, a couple weeks ago, you've got some players--I don't even know who it was--asking about knowing if the coach gonna be here, knowing this and knowing that. What we need to know is what defense we're lining up in this week, what offensive plays we gonna line up in, and what we need to go out and perfect.

"We can't worry about the media. I never even listen to my own radio show. I mean, when I talk to y'all, that's it. I don't pick up the papers, I don't watch TV to hear, 'The Redskins failed, get everybody out of there,' because I don't want to take the bad, so there's no need to hear the good. It's gonna always be 'Oh, something need to be changed.' We don't need to change all the time. What we need is to stay healthy, which we haven't done. What we need is to execute, which we haven't done, to stop penalizing ourselves, which we haven't done. If we get those things, we'll be fine. Everything else will fall into place."

[Just to be clear, when asked about continuity, Portis said the problem is the media, and when asked about the media, Portis said they need continuity. Next thing I know, Redskins players will be bringing Backgammon boards to the Bingo hall and shouting out Yahtzee! Love Yahtzee! Used to play by myself all the time. Never could figure out if it's better to take your second zero in Yahtzee, Four of a Kind or Chance. The first zero is for 1s, obviously.]
Anyhow, the interview wrapped up with Doc Walker asking about lights at the end of tunnels, which may or may not require extra sets of eyes to see.

'It's a pride thing," Portis said. "I can't speak for nobody else, but it's hard to go out in public when you around here, you 2-4 and you done lost to teams that haven't had a win. You know, it's hard. So my pride comes into play, like 'Man, I can't even hold my head up in a restaurant, [because] we suck as a team.'

"But I can't say, 'Oh man, I'm doing good, so I'm going to eat and I don't care what they say, I'm gonna bash my teammates.' That's not it. As a team, we're not getting it done. As a team, my pride is at stake. So therefore I come out and whatever I can do, whatever I can help with, whoever I can help improve, that's what I try to do....Win lose or draw, we're gonna go out and fight."



(washigtonpost.com)