The Kevin Sheehan Show - Clinton Portis' Preseason Thoughts

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

Kevin was joined by Clinton Portis today. Clinton talked about some of his most memorable games as a Redskin including the time he got injured in a preseason game in 2006.Clinton's thoughts on how tomorrow night's preseason opener in Cleveland should be handled along with plenty of discussion about Sam Howell, Eric Bieniemy and more. He also responded a bit to Albert Haynesworth's remarks last week. For your sports betting needs, use https://www.mybookie.ag/. Use promo code KEVINDC when you sign up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. One guest on the show today, Clinton Portis. We'll jump on with me in the next segment. We'll talk Washington football.

We'll talk about their preseason opener tomorrow night against Cleveland. Remember, Clinton, in a preseason game in 2006, chased down a defender who had picked off a Mark Brunel pass, and Clinton injured himself making the tackle. I'll ask him about that, his thoughts on playing time for the starters tomorrow night, and I'm sure we'll get into a lot of other things we typically do. The show today brought to you by MyBooky. My Booky's online casino offers everything you would want.

Lots of slot machine options, lots of roulette options, plenty of table games, including over 30 blackjack games, craps as well. MyBooky's online casino has over $2 million in jackpots available right now. Go to my bookie.orgie.orgie.org, use my promo code Kevin D.C. to secure up to a $1,000 bonus with a $10 casino chip as well. You've got to use my promo code, Kevin D.C. All of the preseason football odds are up. Washington's the three-point underdog tomorrow night against Cleveland. Two preseason games tonight, a double header between Houston and New England on the NFL network followed by Minnesota at Seattle. And as I've been mentioning, all of the 2023 season prop bets

are up. Washington's over under number at MyBooky is still at six and a half. MyBooky's got fair points spreads, fair pricing. Their online casino is great. Go to MyBooky.orgie.org. Use my promo. code, Kevin, D.C. This review to start the show, I love the show, writes Redskin Roach, gives us five stars. Quote, I'm an American who lives in Burma doing non-profit work. Your show keeps me entertained when I ride my motorcycle. I love your Tom talks, but those Doc Walker episodes are crazy. He says you don't call him. Anyways, love your show, Kevin. And And I miss Cooley. Of course I call Doc.

It's the Doc exaggeration factor that you always have to take into consideration. We have fun with each other. I always love having Doc on the show. He's a very busy guy. He's very important. It's tough to get him on a consistent basis. But we will effort to do more of that. Thank you.

And don't forget to rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify. Five stars, a quick one to two sentence review is really helpful. and following us on Apple and Spotify is a big help as well. I want to respond to a tweet here early in the show. It comes from Mo. Kevin, the Jason writes stuff on yesterday's show. Wow, this is a problem, even more than the Eric B. Enemy stuff. And you didn't even read the best quote.

And then he writes the quote. And I don't know if I read this or not, but I'll take your word for it that I didn't read this. when I was reading the Jason Wright quotes from the Jason Reed column on Eric Beeney. Jason Wright was the only person in the organization quoted in this story. But the last quote was, Beenemy is shaping and molding the culture of the offense, and thereby the whole team were lucky to have him, closed quote. Yeah, the Jason Wright stuff is interesting.

Maybe not super important, you know. interesting, not important, as Ron would say. Not important necessarily to the performance of the football team. I don't know that Sam Howell's going to play worse because Jason Wright and Ron Rivera are at odds. I just personally, as I've said the last two days, I wouldn't allow him to speak on football matters if Ron kind of views it as his own toes being stepped on. Now, if Ron's okay with it, so be it, I guess. but if the head football person in the organization, and that person is Ron Rivera, is bothered by Jason Wright, you know, commenting on a lot of things and being out in the media talking football, you know, let's not forget, he's done it before. You know, the Carson Wentz thing with Scott Abraham last year. You know, Jason Wright talked about how important it was for him to get back from L.A. when they were interviewing Eric B. Enemy. That was out in the media. I don't know that. anybody was searching out what Jason Wright thought of the Eric Bienemy hire, but it certainly got out

there that somehow he believed it was important that he get back to be a part of the interview process with Bienemy. I think Ron probably was going to be okay closing Eric Bienemy on his own. Like I've said many times, Bienerty didn't have many options. But the bottom line is if Ron Rivera is bothered by it, then the new owner's got to put a stop to it, period. I'm not suggesting, by the way, that Ron is the best communicator when it comes to being the lead voice on football matters. But it doesn't matter because he is the lead football person. And he should be the person that's out there in the media talking about football matters. Ron certainly doesn't need Jason Wright pumping up Eric Bianamy

to the point of minimizing Ron's importance. And that's kind of what Jason did in that story with Jason Reed, specifically taking kind of a not-so-subtle shot at Ron's culture building since he arrived. I just don't think it was a good look for a few weeks after the best week in 24 years that the organization has had, just like I don't think what Ron did the other day, but it doesn't matter. He's the authority on the football side.

I don't think he handled that thing well the other day, talking about Bienemy and talking about the players that had come to him. But, you know, you can't be, you know, you just can't say the single biggest accelerant to the culture change Ron was brought in to do is Eric Bienemy and then talk about him in the way of him being ready to be a head coach. I mean, maybe, you know, Jason sees Eric Bienami. as his chance to stay on, perhaps in a role that includes more football, maybe. But he shouldn't be out there talking unless Ron wants him out there talking.

That's my position on this. But overall, is it going to affect the performance of the team on the field? I doubt it. As far as Bienemy goes, one last thought on this week's, you know, revealed by Ron about players being concerned with Bienemey's coaching style. I was told last night that it's true that players. went to Ron, but it wasn't recently. It was more, you know, either super early in camp or even maybe back to OTAs in

minicamp, that that's not a thing right now. And again, you know, I mentioned the last two days, man, until Ron said something about it, nobody had heard anything about it. Nobody had heard about any kind of issue that players had had had had with Bienemy. So I did learn that these were not recent conversations with Ron. Players weren't coming to him recently, even though it was confirmed that players had gone to run. Now, of course, I tried to find out which players.

And I've said before, I think I said yesterday, I just don't see like a young player going to Ron Rivera to complain, a guy that's, you know, a long shot to make the team. So it's more likely than not. More likely than not, they were veteran players. But again, if it wasn't Terry McClorn, Charles Leno Jr., Wiley, Cosmy, you know, Gibson, I just, I personally bet you it's not that big of a deal, at least not now. It could be, I guess.

And by the way, for anybody that suggests that this isn't a deal at all, well, you're naive. Okay. That doesn't, that just doesn't even make any sense. I mean, we can talk about whether or not it's a big deal or not, and I would probably lean towards it not being that big of a deal, football-wise. But any time you've got players that feel like they've got to go to the head coach to talk about their position coach or their coordinator, you know, that's a deal of some sort. Anyway, it's time to play some football.

You know, results are the only thing that matters. Eric Bienemy is going to be judged on results. Ron Rivera the same, Sam Howell the same. If the team is good on offense and they hate Bienemy, so what? That would be much better than they liking Bianmi a lot and sucking on offense. Lots of successful teams have players that don't have the best of relationships with their coaches. And again, I'm not suggesting that that would be what it is because the Kansas City players all had great things to say sort of, you know, after they got to know Bianami and his style.

And sometimes that's all it takes is just time. As far as tomorrow night against Cleveland, I'll have more of a preview, if you will, on tomorrow's show. But I'd like to see the starting offense out there for a while. I would. And maybe it's not tomorrow night. Maybe it's next Monday night against Baltimore after, you know, a few days in Owings Mills in the joint practices.

By the way, I would bet that Clinton Portis will disagree with me on starters playing in preseason. He was never in favor of it. But I don't want this team to get to the Arizona game and look back at these opportunities, you know, an opportunity to play three times. I mean, there are three preseason games, you know, which are played in a stadium in front of a crowd with a game clock. with a play clock, with, you know, communication coming from a booth down to the sideline. By the way, I believe that Eric B. Enemy will be on the sideline as an offensive coordinator and not in the booth. I was told that I don't know if that's something that many of you didn't know already.

But if you didn't, now you do know that Eric Bienemy will be on the sideline, calling plays and coaching the offense. But I don't know. I'd like to see them a very. avoid, you know, getting into a rhythm in the opener against Arizona. I want them to get to the Arizona game and kind of have it locked up on calling plays, communicating the plays to the quarterback, then having the quarterback communicate plays, running plays, 60-minute games against an opponent with referees, with quarters, with a clock. I just think that they are in a position where they have started one in five, two and six, and one and four, and they've got to be sharp. Because that first game is actually an important game.

You've got to beat Arizona to avoid what could be a catastrophic start if they don't. And I know it's a week-to-week league. Before we get to Clinton, I saw this story as I started to record this podcast. I thought it was a really interesting story. And it's a team that I'm actually very optimistic about this year. So Mike Vrable, who is the head coach of the Tennessee Titans, and I think one of the better coaches in the NFL, he is doing something that I think is a first in the NFL.

He is allowing his assistant coach, Terrell Williams, to serve as the head coach for their Saturday preseason opener against the Bears. Vrable presented the idea to Williams, who by the way is black, a couple of weeks ago. Assistant coaches have called plays or handled an increased workload in spot duty, but taking over as the head coach for a game is unprecedented. Williams said today in Nashville, quote, Mike Vrable deserves a lot of credit. Hopefully more coaches will give us assistant coaches opportunities to do this because there's nothing better than actually getting the experience closed quote. Williams's opportunity extends beyond game day. He's going to take over as

the head coach starting with the Titans team meeting tonight where they will formulate a plan for who will start at quarterback and how the game reps will be situated. Williams will also have to devise a plan for which starters will play in the first preseason game. The Titans are also giving associate head trainer Matt Greggen opportunity to lead the training staff for the game this week. Man, that is outside the box thinking. And that is also, really, when you think about it, a head coach that has a lot of confidence in himself, a lot of, you know, security in himself.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of Mike Rable. I think he's just flat out one of the best X's and O's coaches in the league. From everything you read about them, players like him a lot. You know, that team is one of those teams, and we did this segment actually this morning on radio. They're one of those teams where I think they're going to be much better than people think. They just have a lot of talent. Obviously, Ryan Tannahill is, you know, one of those quarterbacks that's more than capable. He's won a lot more games than he's lost.

You know, I looked this up recently, and I'm going to do it right now, because I think you'd be surprised at what Ryan Tannahills' win-loss record is as a starter in the NFL. It is 78 and 65. All right, he's got 108 touchdowns, 2212 touchdowns to 108 in. interceptions. He's thrown a bunch of picks. He's also, you know, a five-time starter in the postseason. He's two and three in those games as a starter. I like their roster. I have liked their roster. That team was decimated by injuries last year after starting seven and three. They lost the most games, man games, due to injury of any team in the league, and it actually wasn't even close.

they added DeAndre Hopkins. Trailing Berks, the first round pick in 2022. He's got to be healthy. He hasn't been. Derek Henry is back. I love Chig O'Conquo, the tight end from Maryland. I think he's a star in the making. And then their defense is nasty. It's well-coached, super well-coached. And their pair of defensive tackles, Jeffrey Simmons and Tart. They play a 3-4, but Simmons and Tart together are to, me the best kind of inside combo other than Alan and Payne. They'll have Landry back. They still have Byrd. That's a good football team. Amani Hooker. That's a good football team. Now, they're in a division with Jacksonville coming off that, you know, really good finish and a playoff win. And by the way, they were in that game at Arrowhead. And Trevor Lawrence looks like he's about to take off. But I like the Titans this year. And I really like what Mike Vrable is allowing Terrell Williams to get experience doing. I think that that's, I think it's really interesting

because these are important days as you lead up to the season. Most head coaches never want to give up that kind of control, but he's going to do it for a few days. All right, Clinton Portis next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, joining me right now is Clinton Portis. It's been a while since we've had Clinton on the podcast. We've had him on the radio show more recently,

but I was thinking about you because the preseason starts tomorrow night for Washington. It opens up for the rest of the league tonight, if you don't count last week's Hall of Fame game. And you had a very kind of famous or infamous preseason experience in Washington. What do you remember about that game against the Bengals when you hurt your shoulder? And I mean, you were pissed and all the fans were as well. This was back in 2006. Clinton Portis, remember, coming off a record-setting year in 2005 here in Washington, and you get hurt chasing down a defensive player who intercepted a Mark Brunel pass.

Well, that defensive player was key one rat, and the only reason I was chasing him, we have a friendly personal competition going on because he was a gator and I was a hurricane. game. But what I actually remember was the fact that I attempted to avoid playing it in that entire game. I think I thought to Coach Gibbs. I'm like, bro, why am I playing? And it was like, well, you only have like five plays. I'm like, what's the point? You know? And we go out and we nailed through the pick. And just probably because it was rat left and me just thinking, well, okay, I got to, I got to save this touchdown. I went to make a tackle. I went to make a tackle. and came up with my shoulder

to how to play. So hold on for a second. So before the, because I've got the quotes right here from you after the game. You said after the game, I don't know why myself or any other player of my caliber should be playing in the preseason.

I think for the last four years I've done enough to show the world, I'm going to be ready for the season. Did you tell Gibbs that before the game? Yeah, I did. Honestly, I think it was we had a new offensive coordinator. Al Saunders.

You know, I guess he just wanted to see everything in motion. It was an opportunity to see the install of the new offense to get things on film. So it was like, okay, you're going to play five plays or however many plays it was. And it was pointless. You know, I think for a lot of the guys, and I've always said, for the players that you don't know for the guys who are trying to impress and put on the team. Those are the guys who should be playing in all the games.

You know, maybe you give your team a tune-up. How? I don't know. But I think if you give your starters all of training camp to go out and get ready. You know, it's hard to go out and emulate four quarters, but no one is ready for four quarters at week one anyway. So, you know, I think it's just a matter of, figuring out how to do it without losing anybody. As you see now, nobody plays in the preseason.

You know, you might get a couple throws from a quarterback, but everyone takes their guys out. So I'm looking through the game story from this game. The offense, the starting offense, only played 13 plays. So that's probably like two drives or whatever. Yeah, and I think I only had one drive, and the office had two drives. I think it was like before the game, I'm telling Coach Gibbs, like, bro, why am I playing this game? Like, I don't want to play. It's like, you only have one drive.

Like, the other guys have two. I'm like, man, why am I playing? And I just remember Mark throwing the pick and, you know, me taking off in pursuit of a rat. Yes, you did. And you hurt yourself tackling him. And now I'm learning that, now if you didn't have this, thing with Ratliff, you know, Gator versus Kane, would you just let him score?

I probably should have. You know, I think I definitely should have. You know, I was talking to him here and Chad before the game, and it was one of those, again, friendly competitions where we're talking trashed each other and who's going to do what, and that was my opportunity to go and tackle rat. They're pointless as all out doors. Like, if I had it to do it all over again, I would have took my helmet off on the field and walked up. Can you imagine the dude's running it back and you get to within like five yards and then you just stop and you take your helmet off and just say, no, preseason. That would have been funny. I should have did it how players have to do the quarterback. You get over there so you could

have made the play and just throw your hands up. Well, I had it. Right. Yeah, exactly. When the quarterback chases him down and doesn't want to get blocked and then just sort of veers out of the way and says, oh, shoot, I could have had him. Or the kicker. I could have ran to the sideline and doves to their gatorade. Well, so I'm just trying to remember that you were ready, though, for the regular season opener that year.

You didn't miss the regular season at the beginning, right? No, I actually played, I think we played the Vikings. You did. You did. I think I might have actually had two touchdowns. And I played the first few games. I ended up breaking my hand against the Eagles. So I had a broke hand and shoulder.

That's what put me on IR because I was playing with the shoulder. Yeah, you played with the shoulder. In fact, I've got it right here. in the Minnesota game, you had one touchdown. No, you had one touchdown, sorry. And then you missed the next week, which was the Dallas game, which was a Sunday night football game. It says you were inactive for that game.

And then you came back that week against Houston when Brunel completed the first 20 passes or whatever it was to set an NFL record. Remember that game? Yeah, I went off. Houston. Yeah, you went off in Houston. You had a big game.

You had that big touchdown catch from Brunel. So you don't think that there was any value with a new offensive coordinator, Al Saunders, and his 300-page playbook or whatever it was. You didn't think that there was any value in getting into a rhythm offensively with a whole new offense installed? I did it. I mean, you know, once you've been with the guys, this is going to happen. You know, everything is reactive.

And a lot of people look at it like, oh, man, you're knocking the rust off. You're doing this. I'm not going to rust off running around in practice. You know, you can, it's enough you can do to simulate a game or game speed, play speed. Because in Denver, remember, we did everything full speed with no pads on. Right. So we were always prepared. So I knew it could be done.

It was just one of those things I knew it could be done, but they want to look at everyone. You know, it wasn't just about me. And the big picture was all the starters are playing. So when I ended up getting hurt, because once I'm on the field, you know, I couldn't turn it off, be like, okay, I'm going to go 50%. That's when you get hurt. So given it 100%, I chase out. a plate to make a tackle,

ended up blowing out my shoulders. I want to come back to sort of preseason thoughts and your thoughts on this team as it relates to the preseason in a moment. But other than that game where you had five touchdowns in Denver, which, you know, was one of the great, you know, NFL running back

performances of all time. That was, I think, after your second year in Denver at the end of the year. What was your best game as a Redskinned? I would look back and say that Jets game. We played the Jets in New York. I think I had about 170, and that was one of those physical games.

I don't think the Jets defense had given up a 100-yard rusher in maybe a year or two. They were a top five Russian defense, so those were the games that always look, you know, and in Jor. playing the Eagles where, you know, the Eagles aren't giving up 100-yard rush. Playing the Giants, where they defense, you know, what was playing out of their mind with those ends and tunk in O.C., straight-hand. So playing in those games where you weren't supposed to go out and perform, like, it's okay if you don't do 100 yards. Like, going out in the Minnesota Vikings, the Jacksonville, Jaguar,

So go out and have 100 yards against those defenses that didn't give up 100-yard rushers was always special to me. So I look at that New York Jets game on the road where no one gave us a chance and we go to New York and win. Yeah, I was going to guess that one, and I just pulled up that game. You actually didn't give yourself enough credit. Also, I'm just noticing we were favored in that game. We were three and a half point favorites. So you rushed 36 times for 196 yards and a touchdown. A game went to overtime, and Sean Sweezen made a fuel goal in overtime to win at 23 to 20.

But you had 196 yards, not 170-something yards that you said. You had a buck 96, and I remember those were hard yards. That was a really, really physical game. You know what else I'm noticing from that game? Liddell Betts had 64 yards on nine carries. So when you got the occasional breather 36 carries, you're not getting that much of a breather. But you guys rushed for 296 yards as a team

if you count Jason scrambles in there. That's amazing. Like you just don't see. Yeah, it was. And, you know, people don't understand. what that Jet's defense was. You know, you look at it and be like, oh, that was a big Russian day. But no one understands that Chris Jenkins' jet's defense wasn't giving up any yards.

Like, that was unheard of for them. So for us to go up and have that performance without saying it. Yeah. The other game from your career here that always sticks out to me is the, is the first year in 2004, not your first run. Everybody remembers the first run against Tampa, but the game against Chicago, and I'm looking up to see what those numbers were,

because I know you had a massive day, and you guys were struggling at the time, and this is, by the way, when Sean was wearing number 36, you know, that rookie year, and he had a great game. All right, here it is. you had 36 carries again, 36 for a buck 71. And I think Sean may have had two picks or one in that game. He had one pick, but he had some vicious tackles in that game.

That's another game I remember because I remember, you know, the Gibbs first year, Clinton, so many of us were so excited, you know, that Joe was back and you guys beat Tampa with you touching the ball and scoring on the first play. And then you had a bunch of close losses. But I actually thought, and I'm curious as to what you think, I think at the end of that season, you could start to see the light that you guys were starting to get it,

and the team was starting to put it together. You know, you weren't a playoff team, but you beat Minnesota in the final game of the year and knocked them out of the playoffs. Randy Moss, that was the game. He walked off the field when there was still clock left. Like, did you have a game? have a sense in Gibbs' first year and your first year here, that at the end of that first season,

things were heading in the right direction? Of course. I think what we walked in, where we started out with at the beginning of the season, so what we finished with at the end of the season, I think we had a team, which we proved that the following year. I think we had a team, every game we played that year was tough. I think maybe we lost the New England in a blowout, or we lost the one team in a blowout. Everything else came down to last possession. I can even remember playing green bait and scoring a game winning touchdown. Right.

And then called off sides on James Strach from moving his home. Yeah. So I think that's kind of where our season changed. You know, I think if we win that Green Bay game, it's a total different season. But that kind of started a downfall. But again, we played together as a team. everyone was involved, guys was ready, and it transferred to the following year. I think we built a chemistry, we built an identity that first season of just being

hard-nosed, like, tough physical individuals. And all of a sudden, you know, with Coach Williams, the defense buying into him, with Coach Gibbs, the offense, I didn't think we needed to go out and have the huge change. which after we won the playoff game. I didn't think we needed that, you know. But the following year after that is when we brought in Sundays. But we had went to Seattle, and I think Coach Rainey, not Coach Browell, and Jack was calling the offense.

So we had to change after that season, and it kind of switched out our identity because we brought in Coach Sanders. All of a sudden, we went from downhill to everybody had to run 30 or 40 yards before the play started. And then we were asked to, you know, make a play. So I think that 05 and 017 actually had a shot. You know, I think the locker room was that close and guys were leaving each other, especially I think we lost San Diego at home in 2005. Yeah.

And everyone had wrote us all. And just the guys in that locker room believes in each other. And that's how the season turned around. Yeah, I mean, well, that 2005 season was, you know, the big run at the end of the year after the overtime loss to San Diego when LT took it, you know, 50 yards or whatever it was in overtime. By the way, that was a Marty Schottenheimer coached Chargers. team. And it followed

Norve Turner the week before, because we lost to the Raiders the week before at home, back to back games against former coaches, Norv Turner and Marty Schottenheimer at home, and both of those games were winnable. But then you got on that big role. You started to run

the ball. They started to go to you. And, you know, look, we've talked about the Al Saunders thing many times in the past. You Cooley, everybody kind of feel like, felt, and to to this day that it was unnecessary. But that playoff game at Seattle, to me, is the closest to a Super Bowl that this franchise,

because it has been a long way away, as you know, from a Super Bowl. But since they were the defending champs in 92, when they nearly beat San Francisco to get to the NFC championship game, Carlos Rogers had a pick six in his hands, dropped it. That would have changed everything. It would have been 10 to nothing. LeVar had already knocked out Sean Alexander. No. He had already knocked out Sean Alexander.

I thought it was LeVar in on that tackle. No, son. Son, Paul, Alexander, knocked out. Well, Alexander is knocked out of the game, and Carlos Rogers' early second quarter has a pick six in his hands. He drops it. And the thing about it, the reason that I say that's the close, more so than say like the RG3 year when we were up 14, nothing against Seattle,

is that you know who you would have played if you had beaten Seattle in the NFC championship game? Do you remember? Yeah, like the Bears, I think. Carolina. Yeah, we had already beat there. Yeah, you would have played Carolina in Charlotte in the NFC championship game because they beat Chicago and then Seattle ended up hosting Carolina and winning the NFC championship game that year, and that's the year they lost to Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl.

And we had beat Pittsburgh that year as well. You beat Pittsburgh that year? Yeah, we beat Pittsburgh and Seattle that year. I remember the win over Carolina that year. I don't remember that you guys beating Pittsburgh that year, but whatever. I'm trying to look it up to see. I mean, that's the year that started... No, no, no, you didn't beat Pittsburgh that year.

You didn't beat Pittsburgh that year. So we beat Carolina that year. Actually, I'm wrong about that. We didn't beat Carolina that year either. 2005 started with that Chicago game that, you know, no touchdowns 9 to 7, and then the Miracle Monday Night finished with Santana and Brunel. You did beat Seattle, though. You beat Seattle 20 to 17 in the regular season,

and then lost in the playoffs. Yeah, exactly. But that team was probably our closest team. Like with MWAT, with AP, with all the guys that were on that team, and you look at, you know, after that, they broke the team up. You know, guys started leaving, I think, Robert Royal, we launched Dockery, we lost. Ryan Clark. Ryan Clark, we lost Antonio Pierce, like all of the meat and potato guys that we had that

brought, you know, that knew their role and played their role well, we lost. Yeah, well, that 2006 off season was the, you know, Archiletta, Randallel L., Brandon Lloyd, and I know you love Brandon Lloyd, you and I've talked about him before, but all, you know, losing Pierce and losing Ryan Clark were huge. And, you know, that was an example of, you know, the owner and the general manager, Vinic Serato at the time, not understanding, you know, chemistry, et cetera, and being involved. By the way, the other game from 2005 was the game where All-Stat had that two-point conversion that shouldn't account it. When they went for the two.

And against Tampa Bay, he did not get in on that play, but they, you know, they said he did. and that was, I mean, you guys, I'm looking back through that season, there were just gut-wrenching losses that year. I mean, you had, you had the, that loss followed by the Oakland loss, followed by the Chargers loss. You know, all of them were winnable games. Man, L.T. went nuts in that game. It was a Clinton Portis, Lidani and Tomlinson showdown.

You had 87 yards on 29 carries. LT, 25 carries a buck 84 and three touchdowns, including the touchdown in overtime. Yeah, but he got two of his in overtime. Yeah, I mean, he got two of his at the end of the game. Yep. That was a big one. Yep, the tie, he scored on a 32-yard touchdown to tie it late in the fourth quarter, and then it was the first, I think it was the first possession,

maybe even the first play of overtime. He took off, here it is. It's a 41-yard run. Yeah, it was the third. It was the third play of overtime. Third play. By the way, you know who the quarterback was for the Chargers that day? Who, Rivers?

Nope. A breeze. Drew Breeze. Drew Breeze. Drew Breeze. Yeah, well, Breeze. Yeah. Breeze was the quarterback.

He threw three picks that day. for the Chargers. Crazy season. All right, I want to talk to you about this team. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by the Circa Million

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So with that said, here's a team now that opens up the preseason tomorrow night, has a quarterback that's played one NFL game. And it was at the end of the season, you know, and kind of a, It was almost a preseason environment. You've got an offensive coordinator who's never called plays before and is installing a new offense. So do you think that this team should give the offense very little work? Or do you feel differently about this situation?

I don't think McCloris should play at all. I would have Terry in the game. I would probably get him some work in that third. game or the second game. But I wouldn't have Terry in. I would try to get the quarterback some comfortable throws just to get the ball in and out of his hand quick. Don't give him a chance to get sacked or anything, which, you know, the first game

is usually vanilla, not a lot of bliss. So this would be your opportunity to try and, you know, get some rhythm throws in, you know, basic defense, get the ball out of his hand early, and get the guys out, you know. One drive, what is one drive proven? What is two drives proven? Like, you leave after two drives, like, yeah, well, we're there. Like, it doesn't do anything for you. So what about the argument of saying then keep them in for more than two drives? Listen, they will have one game, and it will be clear-cut.

But we have one tune-up situation that I'm going to let you go for half of football. And I want to see our short yardage goal line. I want to see our two-minute offense. I want to see all of this, like the specialties, the red zone. I want to get all of this in that half. And from that point on, it would be preparation for week one. I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't play around because it's too many guys that's too valuable, you know. You don't want a guy to be coming into the season, nicked up or banged up, and you need them for 17 weeks.

You need every fresh leg outside of that quarterback and getting his rhythm with receivers, you know, hey, go extra hard and in practice. you know, against air. Get your rhythm there. So outside of seeing the quarterback and the coordinator getting a feel for calling plays with these guys, I wouldn't. I would go into the season.

You're not going to have a perfect season anyway. So if you lose someone in the process, before you get that opportunity, it's more of an issue than losing them when it count. Yeah, I hear you, and I think that the most important thing in this time of year is injuries and you don't want to lose good players. But at the same time, they've started the last three seasons, one in five, two and six, and one and four. And they've looked at times to be disorganized on offense. So, you know, one of the things you said, and I remember saying this to somebody last year, who cares about what the clock says, two minute, not two minute?

Why not just start the game working on two minutes, you know, and treat it like, you know, you're hurrying up and you're playing your own clock. I mean, it's almost like you should treat it as a scrimmage and get the work in that you want to get the, regardless of what the game clock and the time and down and distance, say, until they, you know, boot you off the field. I agree. That goes back to what I just said. You're special to situations.

Your short yards go. I'm putting that on the field. My heavy package. I'm putting that on the field. My two-minute offense, I'm putting that on the field. I'm seeing these guys operate. I'm running the field goal team out to, you know, as if it's the end of the game, and we got to clock it.

Like, I'm working all of my specialty within those, within that half of football. And you don't care. Like, at week one, it reset. you're zero zero. Like, you just need that on film to see what to do from there. You know, everything else, I just think it's too key of a situation to lose a player. You know, and we all say Terry and the first name to come out, but you don't want Chase Young banged up. You don't want Jonathan Allen or pain.

Like, you don't want any of these guys. You can't afford to lose anyone. you know and everybody's going to be like we need to see chase he need to be back no I can see chase in practice I can see his get-off I can see the strength I can see everything in practice I need chase week one he more intimidating week one than in the preseason to me you know but for those guys that you have question marks for for those guys there's not sure starters for those guys that's fighting then you put them on the But for the guys that I know, I need you every week, I'm not putting you out here to do nothing.

I don't want you to twist your ankle. I don't need to see you tackle. As things go, I know Johnson Allen and pain and Chase, like, I know they're going to come around. I can't afford to have them standing on the sideline dressed like me. I mean, I agree with you as it relates to those players, and I'm not going to disagree with with respect to offense and what one drive or two drives means. Like, to me, there's no reason for Duran Payne, Jonathan Allen, or Montez Sweat, you know, or Cam Curl or St. Juice or Fuller.

I mean, they don't need, the defense has been together now. I mean, this is year four for some of these guys. It's just that the offense is brand new. And you just don't want to see them struggling to function in week one against the Cardinals. Because you know what, Clinton, that week one game against Errors, I know it's only week one, but it's a big game because Arizona is pretty much, according to everybody, the worst team in the NFL. And this is a new owner. It'll be a very celebratory kind of a day.

They're going to have the biggest crowd they've had out there in a long time. And I'm talking about a crowd rooting for them, not the opponent. And, you know, you just want to make sure that they're buttoned up and ready to go with a guy that's never called plays with a quarter of. that's not really played in the league and a new offense. So however you... Imagine going into week one and you don't have Sam How. Well, I don't know. I mean, that's going to, that's my next question.

How celebratory would that be? Well, I don't know. I don't know how celebratory it'll be or won't be because I don't know anything about what we're going to see from Sam Hal, but that's a perfect segue into what I was going to ask you. You were out there. You've been out there. I know you were out there for minicamp or OTAs in June or whenever that was.

So what do you think of Sam Howell? I mean, I think that's a personal offense that has to prove that he deserves to be the starting quarterback. It's not a secret. I think he has to prove that he should be the start. quarterback. Now, I think it should be an open competition, and those guys are attempting to prove, hey, this should be my job. The offense flows better with either one of those guys in it. Outside of that, I'm just not risking losing guys that I know I need. And you've seen enough out of these guys. You know who's going to fight. You know who's got it. And for those guys that you

don't think got it, put them in. If Diommy Brown is supposed to be a huge part of this offense, DiMy Brown hasn't proven himself as of yet. Let him show out in the preseason. Well, Sam Hell hasn't proved himself yet. So with Sam Howell, again, I just said, get him some safe throws, some quick throws, both quarterbacks. You know, the quarterback position is finicky.

Everybody else, you know, if they tell. or if they're going to go out and bang or, you know, whatever it is. The quarterback position, you lose a quarterback, hey, you got to go out and get somebody off the street. Like, you don't want to lose a quarterback. And if you don't think he got it, you know, if it takes you all preseason to figure out which one of these quarterbacks got it, you don't have a quarterback. All right.

I get what you're saying. But back to, like, the question, what do you think of Sam Howell? Do you think he's the guy or not? I don't know. I haven't seen enough work. Good answer. He's the guy. I think he gave us an excitement, the last game of the season, and he needs to build a rapport of excitement.

You know, that's the same that we had for what was the quarterback that just went to Atlanta. Taylor Heineke, yeah. Yeah, that was the same we had for Heineke. He gives you excitement and then let you get out. We need consistent. it doesn't even have to be excited. We need consistency. That's what we need.

We need consistency. Give me consistent throughout the season. Every game I can expect what from you. And that's what I'm fine with. I don't need the roller coaster. I don't need you to have 400 and then you throw for 205. I don't need you to have 350 and then you throw three picks. Like give me a consistent.

50, 300 yards. You got a two-headed monster in the back field. You got four wire receivers that can play. You definitely got three wire receivers that's capable of making play. Let's playmakers win games for you. Like, get the most out of all in these people. All right. Speaking of playmakers, who, if I need to fast forward a year from now, that's fine. But I'm trying to get you to answer which of these players is more of a concern for a defensive coordinator, Terry McCluren or Jahan Dotson? I think both of them. You know what I really think they need, if they had a number one, just a big body,

if you could have pulled off of DeAndre Hawkins or someone with those two guys, with Dotson and McClearn, you just need another guy. Because Samuel Dodson and McClorn, they all have great, playmaking ability, but you need that thoroughbred number one receiver, you know, which what Corrin can be is just as far as the physical side of things. Just his size don't say number one. His playmaking ability does. So I say those guys, if you can get, especially in this new offense,

if they feed those guys the way that they should. Like, McLaurin should get at least 10 to 12 looks for the game. If your quarterback is throwing the ball 35, 40 times a game, 12 of them need to go to McLaren. And then Dotson should get another 6 to 8 passes per game. And now I can sprinkle in my tight ends, my Samuel, my running backs. Like, I can sprinkle them in for the next 20s. opportunities or 20 passes that I'm through. But my consistent is I'm going to let my dog be a dog, and that's McCorme.

It is no if ands buts about it. That's who I'm going to feed. That's who I'm going to make defenses stop because I can counter with everyone else. What do you think of – I'm a big fan of Antonio Gibson. I know we've talked about him before, but you've been out there recently. We watched Brian Robinson, Jr. last year. I don't understand the hesitancy to think that Gibson can't be a 20 carry back, you know, 20 carry a game back.

I know that that's not how they're going to use him, but just tell me what you think of Gibson in the running back situation. I think Gibson should get 15 touches. I don't know if they all need to be out of the backfield just because of the type of player he is. You can get him in space. So I think you can get him in space, but I think Robinson should get, you know, 15 to 18 touches too. Because why can't you count off those guys? That's 30 plays.

You get about 75 plays a game. Stop wasting plays. You don't get 75 a game. That's a high number a game. You get about 70 plays a game. 63, I think it's average. Okay. If it's 63, why is the quarterback?

back throwing 45 off. I mean, well, I'm not the offensive coordinator. Do you think they're going to throw it that much? I hope not. Yeah. Why not go out to be a 50-50 team? Hey, we're going to run it half the time. We're going to throw it half the time.

What's your... You got two backs and three receivers. What's your impression of Eric Bianami? I like his energy. I love when I watch his interviews. when being around him. I like his energy. I like what he brings.

He's the affable that's been needed within the organization for a long time. He's saying what it is. You know, he seems like a straight shooter, a clear uncut. This is what we're going to do. These are the standards. Like, who's demanded that? No one. So I love his opportunity, the situation that he's in,

and that he has the reins to just go out and be. himself. There's no over the shoulder or no, well, don't say this or don't piss this person off. Let this man, hey, he either going to hang itself or he's going to set to sit on fire. It's going to be a good fire or a bad fight. There's going to be smoke one way or the other. Exactly. Have you followed kind of the story this week where Ron Rivera said players had come to him to express concern? Yeah, but that would be, yeah.

I saw that, and I just think that's the ass. Who cares if, you know, he's pushing you too hard. You just, you need to be pushed. And what man is going to say, hey, coach, this is too hard. Right. This is too hard. Like, I came out of the youth. It wasn't no coach that outworked.

Like, no coach. I didn't have that this went too hard. You know, we talked about Al Sonders in running 30 yards. It wasn't that it was too hard. It was just, what's the way? the point. Like, you're trying to confuse the defense. I'm the one confused. Yeah, I think, you know, I'm with you on that. I think the big thing is, I just don't know why Ron Rivera would say that. You know, it's just, you just don't, you just don't say that.

So, overall, because I do have one or two other things I want to ask you that aren't team related. Overall, what do you think of this team entering 2023? I think they have a golden opportunity to reset. I think Coach Rivera has done an excellent job at keeping the attention on football with everything else going on around it. And now that it's been a change in leadership, I mean the ownership and leadership, the voice of the team, the face of the team. Now it's a change.

I think it gives the city an opportunity to fall in love all over again. And from what I'm seeing, the support is already there. So now you just need a product on the field to give these people a reason to continue to come out and support. Like if you've got a city that's been starving to support a team and they have it for whatever reason, now everyone is back on board because they feel this is our new. beginning. Now that you have that, let it be about football. Let these guys go out and play. Like, keep it, keep it football in late. It's a fresh start. You don't have to go out and create. You don't have to go out and say anything. Let the play. Let the play do the talk.

Have you met new ownership? Have you met new ownership? Yes, I have. And what's your impression? Who did you meet and what's your impression so far. I met everyone. I met everyone involved. So I think they have a new energy. They have a great energy. They're invested in the city. They're from the city. They have a lot going on in the DMV, and they want to win. That's the, that's the biggest thing that you got out of it. They want to win and raise this organization and bring this fan base back to what they remember as kids. And if they could get the city support behind them to do that, I think that makes the NFC East much tougher because Philly is where they need to be.

The Giants is working and Dallas is working. They have the tools to get it done. Now you put the commanders back in the conversation, because that defense that we have is shaping up to be pretty good. And offensively, now that you have the enemy and this energy that he's bringing, I think he's going to be great for this city and refreshing for this city, because we haven't really had this attack firepower since Shanahan. since Kyle Shunnerhead. Right.

And that was a rookie Cal Shandahenhan that we had. That was a newcomer Cow Shandahead. Right. You know, so I think you get, I think you got people in place that if you could go out and win two games before you lose a game and, you know, you don't put consistent losses together. You don't go out and lose two, three games in a row. Hey, you know what?

We lost this week. We won next week. Okay, we just won two games and we lose the game. You know, stay up all 500. Continue to get the people out and give them something to cheer about. And say in the hunt, don't blow the season early. And, you know, we're down and out. We're zero and four.

We're fighting to get people. Like, the people are on board. Let's start out one and zero. And win the games that we're supposed to win and fight in the games that we're supposed to lose. Like show that the fight is there, so that you're not backing down, and you believe. And I think that gets that city and that fan base to come alive. I mean, you're talking like, you know, a sports talk radio person.

I mean, we just need the season to not get away from us because my thing every year is just let's get to Thanksgiving and still be mathematically alive. And then, you know, we're okay. It's the seasons that get away early that end up being a problem. Do you have an opinion? I know you know this is an issue with a lot of the fans. I mean, a significant majority of the fans don't like the current name. They don't like the current branding, the uniforms, et cetera. There's a huge petition out there to bring the name Redskins back.

What's your opinion if you have one on the name issue? I would love the name Redskins to come back. But how do you, you know, if that is possible, it would be great. Like, it would, I really think that would be a nut. That would be some more gas on the fire that the city is already sitting on. The flames that the city is already sitting on. So that would be outstanding, you know, but I'm just not sure if that's doable. So I don't know how to, I always say redskins anyway.

If you realize I haven't said football team or commanding this entire couple of things. It's hard for me too. Because, yeah, I play for the red skin. So there's no disrespect. If I'm speaking my truth, I'm talking about the red skin. That's who I played for. That's what I know. So that's it, you know.

And if the city can rebrand and bring that name back, man, I think that will be outstanding. I'm just not sure. You know, for all the negativity that we got from that name. I know. I'm with you. I would love it, but I don't actually think it's realistic because, you know, there's corporate dollars at stake in the NFL. I don't think the league would allow it. So let's assume that that's not available, even though we both admit we'd love that, which I would.

Do you still want to see the name changed to something different? Man, you know, I just think, I think the Washington football team or a football club would have worked before they went to commanders. It just didn't give you, you know, I think that would have worked because it was an easier transition instead of a rebrand, you know. But I don't really worry about whoever they are. Within that organization, what this city is fighting for, no matter the name, they're. need somebody that's going to go out and represent. So if you get that, nobody cares. They could be the

mailboxes. If they can figure out a way to win, the city of support. Everybody have on the UPS outfit. What is Brown done for you today? I'm with you and that is, you know, assuming Redskins

doesn't come back. I just would want the brand to be Washington. Washington Football Club, Washington Football Team, you know, FC Washington, whatever. That's my preference if Redskins isn't a possibility. All right, one more for you. Did you see what Albert Hainsworth said about you, Cooley, and D. Hall last week? Yeah, man, you know, you see I never responded to that. I just think, man, buddy better leave me alone. You know, like for anybody that knows me, we've had enough stories that come out about me.

I've been honest about everything I've been an open book my entire career I haven't been in a tunnel with him didn't really spend a lot of time with him so I just know it's not one clip that you could ever play

that you can look and say hey port is shut it down port is laid down it's not one so it's no need to entertain that conversation. You know, I think it was one of those where he felt like I've always told the truth.

That's the one thing about anything that come out of my mouth is from my memory, how I remember. And it's rare that it's been, hey, no, that's not what happened, this is what happened, or something else came out to prove it. Everything that I've ever said from the conversation that we've had when you say, oh, off record, and I tell you, there's no off the record with me.

this is what happened or this is what it is. Like, I've, that's me. And the only thing, the only time I've ever spoke his name was in me sharing a story of him laying down in Detroit and coming back out of the tunnel. Right. And how funny that was to me. I've never said anything negative about him. Hey, man, you came in here. You got your money.

That's, hey, whatever it was, for whatever reason it didn't work, that's not. my business. I share one story about you. So for you to come out and say this and, you know, like, man, we're not home boys. And I know, I know your truth, you know, like I know you're a real truth. So you better leave me alone, man. You and, so I was with Cooley last weekend out in Wyoming. And it was the day that the news came out and he said, what you said, I'm not going to respond to this. And you know what? You guys don't have to because you have people out there that'll respond for you. I mean, when I heard this and when everybody else in town heard this, he doesn't realize it, but he was describing himself. He wasn't describing the three of you, which, you know,

you don't have to add to it all. All right. This was fun, as always. I've never been in the tunnel with buttermen, so, you know. All right. All right, this was good. I'll call you before the season starts, and we can talk some college football too. All right. All right. Peace out. The Clinton Portis, ladies and gentlemen, always good to catch up with him. All right, that is it for the show today. Back tomorrow. Second and champ. On the 33-yard line, we are in all the time tied at 20. Portis, crossed the 40 and drives ahead for a Redskins first down. Second down at eight.

Fortis running left. Into Jets territory. Inside the 40, finally, forced out of bounds by Dyson at the Jets' 48 after gaining 22-yard. The Redskins with a chance to win the game. 46-yard field goal tip by Swayzen. Swayzum's kick. Does it have the distance in overtime?

And raise their record to five and three.