Clinton Portis Quotations

She's tough. She put it right here, baby. She's a Redskin head to toe.

She busted some lady's nose. That'll teach you about messing with her. ... I think they threw some beer or something on her, and she hit them. My mom's going to protect herself.

I don't know what the deal was, but we abandoned the run. We abandoned the run -- I don't know what it was. I can't sit here and tell you it was because of the fumbles or it wasn't, but for whatever reason it was, we abandoned the run. I think when we get to go out there and execute our game plan it's hard to beat us. Every time we become one-dimensional we end up losing.

If it were my team, I'd run all the plays for myself. But I'm not the offensive coordinator, and I probably put us in that situation by fumbling. I don't know if that was definitely the reason, but I put us in that situation.

He might think I'm the devil, but Shaun Alexander is a great back. For the longest time, people said he was soft and couldn't do this and couldn't do that. Right now, he's the league MVP. Maybe we need all to adopt that mentality of him staying fresh by running out of bounds and not taking the extra pounding. That got him the league MVP. I'm sure everybody will like to be in his shoes.

Having that one losing season made me take on more of a leadership role,

Guts and power. You want to win the game, don't you?

Guys were playing for each other, laying it on the line, and everybody was just fighting. The confidence is really up.

I think it might cheer up some people out there. For the people who like it, I'm going to continue doing it, and for the people who don't like it, don't watch my press conferences.

Ladell is capable of big runs and knowing that he's behind me, I can go out on every play and give my all. I don't have to save anything for once you get down in the red zone if I don't have anything in my tank. I think Ladell is going to help us out.

I think we need that guy on the field.

I think we are changing a lot of things up. We are going to get this right.

Out there I'm spending money, and here I'm making money, ... So it wasn't that hard of a decision. I'm 24 years old, and that's going to be in me for a long time, but when it comes time to take care of business, I'm more business-oriented now, and I put that other stuff off to another time of the year.

People have been mailing stuff in. People . . . give me stuff. I had a guy bring me wigs, glasses, teeth, everything. I forgot the guy's name, but I appreciate it.

That alone is going to spark a world of interest.

I was trying to find a way to get into the end zone. So I came out in disguise trying to dissect a game plan to get me to the end zone. It had been so long since I had gotten in there before I finally got in, and I actually did it playing around (with costumes). And then the fans and people started looking forward to it. The fans began to help me, and now it's turned into this national-known scene that we have now.

I think having this change come upon me probably made me grow up and appreciate things more, ... It made me become a better man, become a leader, it sped up the process. Out there, my playing always (did the talking). Off the field, I was always in my own world. Being here, not having the (players like) Shannon Sharpe, Eddie McCaffrey or Rod Smith, it thrust me into that role and I'm enjoying it.

Well, ... I might as well keep a sense of humor because if I leave it up to you all, you're going to run me into the ground, drive me crazy. The last two weeks we haven't won, so now it's becoming a problem. When you're winning, it really don't matter, but when you're not winning, it becomes a problem. We've lost our last two games, and I've got to find a way to get in the end zone.

Week in and week out, everybody was looking forward to it, and hopefully getting a win this week by being myself, that'll take the pressure off. We don't want people to think the skit has been the reason we're successful. I didn't dress up before the Dallas game, and we played spectacular.

I didn't get my hair styled today. I actually stuck my hand in a socket and this is the way it turned out.

If y'all see me in the news, and I make the news for something that I ain't got no business making it for, don't bash me. Say it was a young guy living.

As far as dude running the ball, or running with the ball, and somebody hit you helmet to helmet, I think you got an opportunity to go down. You got an opportunity to slide.

I'll do anything for kids but I don't sign anything for grownups anymore.

I'm instinctive. I'm still learning how to run the ball. What I've done may look good to everyone else, but I know I'm capable of more than I've shown.

I was a pretty good DB, but I realized one day I would rather have someone trying to tackle me than me trying to tackle guys like Jerome Bettis and Eddie George.

I don't feel like there should have been three backs taken ahead of me. And I'll always feel that way. But there's only one draft, and I can't change it. All I can do is go out and prove myself.

When a grown man is chasing you around a building or running through the hotel and trying to jump in your elevator, oh man, I can't even see it. What excitement can you possibly get from having my autograph besides selling it?

Hopefully I don't have to play for eight years but can go and relax somewhere and do something enjoyable while I'm still young.

A man can wear pink if he has confidence, if he believes in himself and knows he's man enough to do it.

Every day I wake up, I say, 'Damn, I hope I don't get that call today.' I don't want to lose my mama. When I start thinking about that, I fall into a hole.

It's exciting when kids look up to you or kids come up to you and ask for your autograph. When grown ups come up to you, that's really not exciting. Why would a grown man be excited for meeting another grown man?

On offense, you can fumble and they still talk about you.

I can be a receiver, a cornerback, a safety and quarterback-I can play everything.

I have a special gift, and I go out and use it. I don't think you can hide it. I'm just confident in myself-always have been.

Everybody who I play always wants to use me, so I always tell them that I'm the only one who knows how to stop Portis, so go ahead.

I have the opportunity to control what happens in a game. I'll have the ball in my hand, and only I know what I'm going to do with it.

I'm not bitter at all. I think my memories in Denver are great.

I don't feel like I have to live up to anything because I've proven that I can play. Give me the ball and let's go.

We've got to be focused. We can't let a QB switch depress us. We can't let it get us down. Whoever's back there, we've got to roll with it.

We've got to be focused. We can't let a QB switch depress us, ... We can't let it get us down. Whoever's back there, we've got to roll with it.

We talked about packing up. We needed to go out and find a way to win or we were going to be cleaning out our lockers. I wasn't ready to clean my locker out. I don't think none of the other guys were, either. We found a way to win.

We went deep. We went short. We hit on medium-range passes. We got our running game going. Jake gives us another dimension.

At 5-6, everyone wrote us off. We started off hot, everyone jumped on the bandwagon. We turn around, we're 5-6, everyone jumped off the bandwagon. As a team we came together.

I used to do gymnastics. I almost made it to the Olympics, back in '98, I think,

Running the ball is what we do well. It's our bread and butter. It's always been the coach's way to win. Any time we can get the ball rolling on the ground, it opens up a lot of things for us.

Southeast Jerome in Heaven. I'm here in heaven with all my friends.

A year like that makes you appreciate things a lot more.

That play was designed to lose two yards. I spun around a guy and it was clear from there.

You pick your poison. You either give up the deep ball to Santana and (Chris) Cooley or let me grind it out.

Third down had been killing us for the last three weeks and to come out and execute and not get in the shotgun, and to actually run the ball when we got to on third and short and to come out and execute, it just builds confidence, and it's going to open up our passing game. We come out on third and short and we haven't been converting, but in this game, we stuck with the run all game long and it paid off: Once we got down to the goal line we stuck it in again.

They never got the opportunity to pay me back for that, so I'm looking forward to it. They're going to have some problems this week. I'm going to come in there with my hard hat on and go to work.

It's just maturity, ... It comes with age. I've always been a leader on the field, but as a spokesman or voice of the team, I always was doing my own thing. As a spokesman for this team, I just had to take on a different role.

That first handoff, it was like, whew, the sky's the limit. At the time, you couldn't have told me we weren't looking at 2,000 yards. But things happen. That keeps you humble and keeps you hungry. It lets you know you can't get the big head. I'd like to think that our struggles last year, being 6-10, made us all better.

I've got all week to think about the pain in my leg. As long as I can stand and as long as I can go, I'll go.

That's big. That's what they brought me here for. This franchise has been around a long time, so to break it is special.

Every week, we've had to play like it was our last game. Don't lose that attitude now. Don't lose that motivation. Now, the pressure really is on for everyone else, but we've been going through this.

I'm good. I'll be at practice Wednesday -- unless I can milk this thing.

I just feel when we're in our game plan, the running game has been there. Unfortunately, we've always been behind. We just want to play solid and not be one-dimensional. We get one-dimensional, we get in trouble.

And on a day like today, ... going with just two or three backs takes it out of you, brother.

The confidence of Patrick is sky-high right now. To come back from that interception and drive down and respond and put points on the board we didn't do that last year. This year, there's a different swagger. He came in the huddle: 'Let's go guys. Let's put some points up.' ... Last year, after a turnover, we probably went backward.

The confidence of Patrick is sky-high right now, ... To come back from that interception and drive down and respond and put points on the board we didn't do that last year. This year, there's a different swagger. He came in the huddle: 'Let's go guys. Let's put some points up.' ... Last year, after a turnover, we probably went backward.