Portis Becoming A Major Problem For Zorn

As if we didn’t already give the Brothers Mottram sufficient ammunition for accusing us of baseless speculation, here’s one that could spark another Twitter skirmish. (In some seriousness, we actually have negotiated -- we think -- a tentative cease fire with our friends from the old Sports Blogger Live show, which AOL never should have discontinued.) The Redskins have a problem. And its name is Clinton Portis. Multiple sources have advised us that Portis shows little or no respect to coach Jim Zorn, and that the situation bubbled over at least once during the team’s OTA sessions, with Portis telling the coach off in front of other players. Said one source: “Portis totally has no regard for [Zorn] and thinks he’s above everyone.” It’s no surprise; Portis sounded off earlier this year regarding the team’s offensive strategy in the second half of the 2008 season. And Hall of Famer John Riggins nailed the situation in late January. “He’s already a headache,” Riggins said. “You mean is he going to get worse? I don’t know. I said that at the end of the season and I believe that unless he changes the way he views himself and views his contributions to the team, then I think that that could be problematic for the Redskins. It’s a bad situation, created probably by the people who run the team, that he’s been allowed to take the course that he has. “I don’t think there’s any turning back now because obviously to a certain extent Clinton Portis has the team over a barrel from my understanding of the amount of money that he’s owed, guaranteed money that becomes really cost-prohibitive to get rid of him over a [salary] cap issue. There’s not that many teams that would be interested in Clinton Portis, I don’t think, and so they have a bad situation on their hands. [That’s] my personal take on it.” Riggins isn’t the only one who feels that way. So why has it happened? As the source mentioned above explained it, “Dan [Snyder] has created this sense of entitlement over the years by confiding in him about team issues and considering him a ‘friend.’” But, as Riggins explained in January, the team is stuck. In the “last capped year,” trading or cutting Portis isn’t an option, because the full remaining bonus allocation would hit the cap in 2009. The other reality is that the Redskins need Portis’ production in the running game. But they need him to perform in a way that doesn’t disrupt what Zorn is trying to accomplish as he tries to keep his butt in a chair that guys like Mike Shanahan and/or Mike Holmgren might be eyeballing.