I am and always have been a big Portis fan because of the effort he gave every game. It didn’t always translate to a lot of production, but you could never deny his heart so I will always look at him in a positive light. But grammar is an objective thing–there is in fact a wrong and a right–and Portis’ use of it has never been great. It doesn’t mean he’s not intelligent, it surely doesn’t have anything to do with the color of his skin, but bad grammar is bad grammar.

Go ahead and google “Grammar” and tell me if you see the word “written” anywhere in it. Grammar applies to “language”, which includes writing and speaking.

Actually Clinton Portis, President Obama added 6.5 Trillion dollars to the national debt. The 43 prior presidents combined couldnt do that type of damage. The money has surely gone to Portis’ head, though Im not sure that he ever had the capability to realize the truth about the current one party political system.

@kozmo50

Linguistic science would tell you that if he is understood by his peers then he is speaking correctly, and that spoken language is not indicative of intelligence. Clinton Portis is from Georgia and speaks in the local vernacular spoken by the black community there because of it. There’s nothing wrong with that, nor does it reflect poorly on the U.

Every time black athletes speak, some internet commenter wants to disparage their intelligence. Go ahead and google “Grammar for Spoken Language” or “Rules for Spoken Language,” they don’t exist.

I get it, he “sounds” like an idiot but you should know that’s just prejudice talking.

jahbird, Clinton Portis grew up in Laurel, Mississippi and Gainesville, Florida. He did not grow up in Georgia. Get your own facts straight before you criticize other posters.

@kozmo50

Linguistic science would tell you that if he is understood by his peers then he is speaking correctly, and that spoken language is not indicative of intelligence. Clinton Portis is from Georgia and speaks in the local vernacular spoken by the black community there because of it. There’s nothing wrong with that, nor does it reflect poorly on the U.

Every time black athletes speak, some internet commenter wants to disparage their intelligence. Go ahead and google “Grammar for Spoken Language” or “Rules for Spoken Language,” they don’t exist.

I get it, he “sounds” like an idiot but you should know that’s just prejudice talking.

_______________________________

Well said. @kozmo50′s head would explode if he actually traveled to the south. It’s almost like traveling to a different country the way words are thrown around and reinvented. It’s also not just black but whites share some of it too.

Linguistic science would tell you that if he is understood by his peers then he is speaking correctly, and that spoken language is not indicative of intelligence. Clinton Portis is from Georgia and speaks in the local vernacular spoken by the black community there because of it. There’s nothing wrong with that, nor does it reflect poorly on the U.

Every time black athletes speak, some internet commenter wants to disparage their intelligence. Go ahead and google “Grammar for Spoken Language” or “Rules for Spoken Language,” they don’t exist.

I get it, he “sounds” like an idiot but you should know that’s just prejudice talking.

Well, I would say he is doing it exactly as Portis described.