I love Clinton Portis. I'm not a Redskins fan, but Portis is all that's right with the NFL. He doesn't take himself too seriously, he's been one of the best running backs in the league over the last seven seasons, and he can block his ass off. And once you get past the fake teef, Urkel frames and suspect fashion choices, Portis often has something interesting to offer. Like, say, here. (Okay, bad example, but this is solid stuff.)
Today, during the John Thompson Show, Portis was asked about the news that "Adam" Pacman Jones had been suspended for at least four games. As the Sports Bog's Dan Steinberg writes, Portis sort of sympathized with Mr. Pacman.
"I really think that situation man probably was blown out of proportion, I really do," Portis said of the Pacman fight. "And I think it might have just been somebody watching and seen the altercation and it wasn't nothing that couldn't be handled amongst men, you know? Bodyguard or no bodyguard, if you're around somebody constantly, tempers gonna flare. As men you exchange words. ...I love that Portis points out that it's not like Mr. Pacman strangled his bodyguard while he was driving. Since, you know, strangling him under any other circumstance might be acceptable. (I'm pretty sure that wasn't the implication, but it's still funny. To me.) Hey, it's just like the time Portis sorta sympathized with Ron Mexico, puppy murderer! And I'll repeat here what I wrote then:
"And I think with Pacman, to come back, to really have this opportunity was a golden opportunity for him, and all of the sudden it's been taken away by the outside world. And now you're under such a tight microscope that you can't fall, or you can't have a disagreement with a grown man. You know, I could see if it was pistol play or if he strangled him or choked him out while he was driving, but you know, if it's man-to-man and we bump chests and push each other, you know, I don't think that's an altercation worth taking football away from him. But, you know, wrong place wrong time is all I can say."
Portis is a 26-year-old professional athlete. Neither his age nor his profession is an excuse for what he said, but he's a football player. ... He's just a guy in his mid-20s who also happens to be very, very rich. For some reason in this country, if you have money, you're supposed to have thoughts on every news story that comes across the wire.
To summarize: Portis is mostly awesome, but sometimes says things a lot of us might disagree with. Which means he should probably run for office or something.





















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-14-2008 @ 7:33PM
Vince said...
Yeah, Portis is all that is right with the NFL. I don't think you even need a response with that idiotic statement. And he has interesting things to say? The man is an moron who couldn't put two sentences together without fumbling over himself. His quotes were obviously cleaned up so we could make sense out of them. Apparently, you've never actually heard him talk or maybe you've been conditioned to expect nothing else. Buddy, stay away from the Kool-Aid, ok?
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10-14-2008 @ 8:52PM
Matt said...
are you a cowboy fan or something, must be with all the hatin bullshit flyin out of your mouth. #1 in the league in rush yards at this point is all that matters, plus sayin he cant put two words together and they must have cleaned it up so we can understand while we drink our kool-aid. you sound like one ignorant, racist, (obviously white) angry person.
10-14-2008 @ 9:11PM
DrThunder said...
Jealous much? Portis is no fool, he's light hearted, soft spoken and down right hilarious. You sound like a sad person.
10-14-2008 @ 11:51PM
Nathan said...
You are wrong! That is all.
10-15-2008 @ 4:28PM
Red Dog said...
Vince...you are a joke...obviously you are one of those little punks that never played a down at nothing! I guess you were too busy wearing your big sister's dress!!!
10-15-2008 @ 3:10PM
A.J. said...
CP pretty much said everything I was thinking. As much as I don't like Pacman Jones, I think everyone deserves a second chance. For CP, this is more personal than anything. Sean Taylor - a teammate from college and a personal friend of his - was labeled as a 'thug' coming out of college and had more than his fair share of trouble in the NFL as well, but he straightened his life out. He didn't do everything right, but he earned the respect of his team and of the league with his conduct on and off the field. I think that if you're truly going to give someone a second chance, you don't sit around simply waiting for them to fail again. Frankly, I wasn't utterly convinced that Pacman Jones could stay out of trouble. Here's the problem, though. Guys miss team meetings and some even punch out their own teammates during camp (yes, Steve Smith, I'm talking to you.) Did Pacman Jones get arrested? No. If it was THAT huge of an incident, how come it took three or four days for Goodell to even find out about it? And then he's like, "Ah, now I get to exercise my power again and show everyone who's boss."
As an objective observer, Goodell's effective dishonesty disgusts me, as well as his unwillingness to address problems in the league across the board...like, say, the referee's constantly exercising their power (either intentionally or otherwise) to change the outcome of a game - a game that should be decided by no one other than the men that get paid millions of dollars to knock the ever-living crap out of each other for several hours on a Sunday (or Monday).
Yes, the officiating is horrendous. It's one thing for an accidental call - refs are humans...in fact, most of them are humans past their physical and mental prime, if you get my drift. But it happens too often. Referees are too flippant about throwing flags nowadays, and the league does nothing but defend them by throwing fines at whoever so much as speaks a word suggesting that they're human and might have made a mistake. They don't make full use of instant replay.
And by the way, you can't fine me, Roger, because I don't belong to the National Fascis-er, Football League in any way, shape, or form other than watching the game and starting to become disgusted at what your unbalanced power tripping is doing to that game that I love to watch so much.
Granted, if he ever institutes a rookie salary cap, he will be my hero for a while, but for right now, Goodell gets an "E" for effort and an "F" for f---ing Adam Jones over.
10-14-2008 @ 8:53PM
GreatR said...
He is not everything that's right with the NFL. He is a ghetto moron that thinks all men punch each other out and if he don't maime a person or strangle them its just good fun. Most of us had our fights and childish behavior while we were children. These NFL morons have arrested development that accepts childish and criminal behavior as the norm. Most "men" are taking care of their families, working to support their families and not exhibiting criminal behavior. Perhaps when this jerk grows up he will do the behavior that make a man, and that doesn't mean punching people out.
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10-14-2008 @ 9:15PM
DrThunder said...
Again Portis is not "gangster" he's a happy dude he has every right to have an opinion even if he give people the benefit of the doubt. He's not condoning the behavior just trying to approach it from a more forgiving angle.
10-14-2008 @ 10:05PM
MrRobalo said...
Portis is a great football player until he removes his mouthpiece and MsPacman is too small to play that position effectively.
I am a Cowboy fan and I do not want him back, he is a proven thug 13 times over. I agree with the Commish
10-14-2008 @ 9:04PM
Clinton said...
Portis is awesome. I can't really imagine anyone hating him unless they're Eagles/Giants/Cowboys fans (idiots).
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10-14-2008 @ 9:14PM
Casey Jones said...
Ok, so we can now acknowledge or draft sucked! We wasted a six pick in the punter we finally cut. Not only can't the Redskins draft only 7th round selection Horton is contributing regularly and he was taken on a flyer from a former Redskin coach, but where are those 3 second round draft selections. Anyone heard of Desean Jackson in Philly? So we can't draft and we can't evaluate talent in camp as we cut Frost, cut Mason and cut Billy McMullen? Now we pick up a host of Seahawks has beens! Please someone at Redskins park, hire a real General Manager and player personnel staff.
Let Vinnie host that horrible propaganda radio show, at least as a radio announcer he can't hurt the Redskins further, there he only takes knowledgeable folks off the air to throw his illogical disinformation to the general public. I'm quite anxious to see the Arbitron ratings on his show! But it won't matter, he apparently has something big on the Dan!
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10-14-2008 @ 9:31PM
Dwight said...
That was well said by Portis . . .He's Black,Rich,an Intelligent and as long as there Racist people in this world.There will be Player Haters mainly people of the other race,and you know who I'm talking about. . .Vince and GreatR
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10-15-2008 @ 10:59AM
jraintdead said...
You know, I could see if it was pistol play or if he strangled him or choked him out while he was driving, but you know, if it's man-to-man and we bump chests and push each other, you know, I don't think that's an altercation worth taking football away from him. But, you know, wrong place wrong time is all I can say."
Dwight said...
That was well said by Portis
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Yeah, only 4 "you know's" in 2 sentences. Very well-said.
10-14-2008 @ 9:50PM
Brad said...
What the hell is wrong with you people!!!
Im gonna put this out there right now... I'm white... i hate racist people A LOT!!
But seriously why did race even have to come into play here?
Portis didn't say what he did because he's black and Goodell didn't take Pacman out because he's black, and white people aren't accusing pacman of doing something wrong cuz he's black. And for the few that might be, well they can just go to hell.
He got into trouble, just face it.
And for the Portis thing... DrThunders right, he's not a gangster or stupid, he's happy, he knows how to express himself and last time a checked we can do that in this country.
I seriously don't get why we can't just let stuff like this go.
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10-14-2008 @ 10:05PM
tj said...
As I have said before, another Black man sticking up for a bro.
Pac-Man was drinking and acting a fool. That's why Goodell suspended him for atleast 4 games.
Pac- man is ghetto and Blacks continue to make excuses for Blacks who fail to be responsible. The Black culture needs to take the next step upward and stop making excuses for their failures, which are many. A lot of their problems stem from this Hip-Pop and Rap culture and they know it but refrain from acknowledging it. Talking about music, Blacks should go back to Motown and Doo Wop music. It's called Love music of the 50's and 60's. Unfortunately, they won't get it.
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10-14-2008 @ 10:24PM
CDS said...
I'm trying to follow your line of thinking here. Most people see a person sympathizing with a colleague, yet you somehow see it as an indication that all black people excuses when one of them gets in trouble.
Guess that would explain why Stephen A. Smith ripped into Pac-Man for his behavior.
You then somehow go on to blame a genre of music for causing most of these problems. If that was true, how come white people don't kill each other when they listen to Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues? Do you really think that all the problems in black culture would go away if they started listening to The Temptations?
You really didn't think this through, did you?
I have a feeling most black people will pass on your presumptions and idiotic "advice".
10-14-2008 @ 10:32PM
clinton said...
"Blacks should go back to Motown and Doo Wop"???
What the hell are you talking about? This has got to be the dumbest thing I've seen on the internet in a while.
Anyway, this is obviously not a "black thing."
Portis is just a guy who speaks his mind and sometimes the stuff he says is not all that well thought out. It's not the end of the world. In this case, what he said was pretty innocuous. It has no influence on anything whatsoever, except insofar as it gives blog readers an outlet to spew their ill-conceived ideas about "blacks."
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10-14-2008 @ 10:57PM
cricket said...
This kind of attitude is what turns a lot of people off on the NFL and the NBA. The " thug " attitude.
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10-14-2008 @ 11:01PM
CDS said...
And by "thug", you mean "black". Stay classy!
10-14-2008 @ 11:14PM
mont said...
Pacman was framed. this is another attempt for the white man with all the money to take down a brother. The body guards were hired to watch him not inhibit his right to express himself. Roger loves taking him out and showing how he's got all the power. All I got to say is OBAMA ! OBAMA! in 4 weeks. A NEED FOR CHANGE WILL BE IN PLACE!!! OBAMA!!!!
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