Clinton Portis V Jason Campbell

A lot has been written and said the past few days about a dispute between QB Jason Campbell and TB Clinton Portis. Apart from the hiring of Mike Shanahan, it's been the big story in Redskins Nation this week. The story is augmented by the new presence of Shanahan, though, since we know he traded Clinton Portis to Washington and didn't like Jason Campbell coming out of college in 2004/05. This dispute between Campbell and Portis began earlier this week, when Portis, speaking on The John Thompson Show on ESPN 980 radio in D.C. [a station owned by Dan Snyder], said the following about why he is not a captain of the team:

"I wondered the same thing. No disrespect to Jason, but everyone in the locker room will tell you that you never see Jason mad or see his temper change. He gets up and dusts himself off. But as a leader you never heard him. It was always, Jason couldn't take control of the huddle or he didn't do this or that. That's not his character. You can't place so much on someone who's not ready for that situation. He had enough trouble getting plays in and worrying about this... You know Jason won't tell the coach we need to do this or we need to do that. The only person that would do it is London Fletcher."

What jumps out at me is that Portis used a question about why his teammates never made him a captain to attack Jason Campbell. The question isn't about Campbell, it's about Portis, but Portis immediately inserts Campbell into the conversation, asserting that Campbell, who is a captain, isn't a leader on the sideline or the huddle. Despite Portis' attempts proclaim his innocence and suggest his comments were taken out of context, it's clear here that he wants to demean Campbell's leadership abilities ["as a leader you never heard him"] and suggest he's still wet behind the ears ["not ready for that situation"].

Read it all at

http://dcprosportsreport.com/articles/washington-redskins/portis-v-campbell.html