What is Portis' Motivation for This?

I never said NBC bought PFT. What I said was that it paid enough to partner with PFT that Mike Florio is retiring from his career as an attorney. Most attorneys make a decent living; the fact that he can retire from that kind of regular and non-trivial income means he must have gotten more than "three easy payments of $29.95" from NBC.


NBC has been in the broadcating/news/sports business for a while now; they probably have a person or two there who know their ass from their elbow. NBC is owned by General Electric - - another company that has been around a while and might just know something about good business practices.


So, if I read the general sentiment here correctly, all of the folks who make decisions at NBC and GE are dumbasses to the highest order while the folks here are smart enough to discern that Mike Florio is a bubblebutt.


You may all be right - - but on the basis of track record, let me say that I'd probably go with the judgments of the folks at NBC and GE.


And with regard to John Riggins's sitting out a year before he won anything, let the record show that it was the Redskins' coaches and front office at the time that went to Riggins to convince him to come back to football. The success of the the Skins in that endeavor got them an eccentric but Hall of Fame quality running back. If Portis' career ended today, would he make the Hall of Fame - - where John Riggins' bust resides? I doubt it.


John Riggins' position in the HoF gives him license to criticize current Skins' players - - much the same way Jim Brown has license to criticize current Browns' players. BTW, that same license is given to Darrell Green and Art Monk and Joe Gibbs and...


If/when Cliff Russell were to criticize current WRs on the team, it would be fine to suggest that Cliff Russell may not have the pedigree to be a credible critic. But when a member of the Hall of Fame says a current Redskin has some flaws that need to be adjusted, he has the chops to make that judgment.


That does not mean that everyone needs to agree with the Hall of Famer who is leveling the criticism. But you really ought to step back and listen to what he has to say and take a fresh look at the situation he is addressing.

I found this to be a tad ironic:



Len Pasquarelli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Pasquarelli) - Florio often alleges that Pasquarelli, a senior ESPN.com (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESPN.com) writer, defends players represented by certain agents by writing overly positive articles in an effort to help out the player and thus the agent. Florio claims that Pasquarelli does this to keep on the agents' good side so that the agents will continue to supply Pasquarelli with inside information. PFT often refers to Pasquarelli as "Pastabelly"[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profootballtalk.com#cite_note-2) and "Don Vito". PFT has also alleged that Pasquarelli has a bias against the Washington Redskins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Redskins), writing columns that have criticized the organization, the death of Sean Taylor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Taylor), the second retirement of Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gibbs), and owner Daniel Snyder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Snyder). He later admitted that his attacks were "in the early days when we we're trying to get noticed."[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profootballtalk.com#cite_note-3)



Wow. How is possible to be such a hypocrite in such an open fashion? You know fellas, you can "join" PFT and leave comments. I say we just light him up. Maybe he would get some sort of sick satisfaction out of it, but if we eloquently roasted him in the comments sections of his posts, the whole blogosphere could see it. Anyway, just an impulsive thought, but it sure would be fun.

Fox 5 showed Portis and he denied any problem.

Btw, anyone who thinks he should leave...there is 0 chance it happens this year. Look at the cap sheet.

I never said NBC bought PFT. What I said was that it paid enough to partner with PFT that Mike Florio is retiring from his career as an attorney. Most attorneys make a decent living; the fact that he can retire from that kind of regular and non-trivial income means he must have gotten more than "three easy payments of $29.95" from NBC.

I never said you said that. I don't know how much Florio is getting paid, or what the terms of his deal are. Just that it's not clear if he's giving up his career as an attorney because of the money, or because he feels he has enough comfortably in the bank (not withstanding any monetary transaction on this deal) to focus on pursuing full-time his true passion.

NBC has been in the broadcating/news/sports business for a while now; they probably have a person or two there who know their ass from their elbow. NBC is owned by General Electric - - another company that has been around a while and might just know something about good business practices.

This has little to do with NBC (or GE) thinking there is great editorial value in PFT, and more about the huge amount of traffic it generates. NBC has not been able to compete online with ESPN, FOX, CBS, or even Yahoo. This gives them a great asset from an advertising, traffic standpoint.

So, if I read the general sentiment here correctly, all of the folks who make decisions at NBC and GE are dumbasses to the highest order while the folks here are smart enough to discern that Mike Florio is a bubblebutt.


You may all be right - - but on the basis of track record, let me say that I'd probably go with the judgments of the folks at NBC and GE.

Yup that's exactly it.

And with regard to John Riggins's sitting out a year before he won anything, let the record show that it was the Redskins' coaches and front office at the time that went to Riggins to convince him to come back to football. The success of the the Skins in that endeavor got them an eccentric but Hall of Fame quality running back. If Portis' career ended today, would he make the Hall of Fame - - where John Riggins' bust resides? I doubt it.


John Riggins' position in the HoF gives him license to criticize current Skins' players - - much the same way Jim Brown has license to criticize current Browns' players. BTW, that same license is given to Darrell Green and Art Monk and Joe Gibbs and...


If/when Cliff Russell were to criticize current WRs on the team, it would be fine to suggest that Cliff Russell may not have the pedigree to be a credible critic. But when a member of the Hall of Fame says a current Redskin has some flaws that need to be adjusted, he has the chops to make that judgment.


That does not mean that everyone needs to agree with the Hall of Famer who is leveling the criticism. But you really ought to step back and listen to what he has to say and take a fresh look at the situation he is addressing.

Riggins can say what he wants, but he shouldn't forget that he was not easy to deal with either.

1) CP is our most dangerous offensive weapon.
2) Zorn will play him no matter what. (don't think he'll bench him again)
3) CP will play his heart out no matter what. (he loves the game too much).

They're not best buds, and they're not currently fighting. But when all is said and done, CP will be running the football on Sundays.

As said above, this is only news because we have NO football for another 5 weeks.

1) CP is our most dangerous offensive weapon.
2) Zorn will play him no matter what. (don't think he'll bench him again)
3) CP will play his heart out no matter what. (he loves the game too much).

They're not best buds, and they're not currently fighting. But when all is said and done, CP will be running the football on Sundays.

As said above, this is only news because we have NO football for another 5 weeks.

Sure hope you're right. I'm not about to sing the praises of PFT, but they have been right before. In fact, they might be right the majority of the time. Not that that means too much, do you want to rely on a newspaper that is 51% accurate?

On the other hand, there is a good chance IMO that there is some validity to this story. I'm basing that on the past season & on CP's comments to the Wash. Times.

We have to realize this is only CP's 2nd coach here, and the 3rd of his career. He also got a new position coach last year. Riggins' comments were spot on IMO, CP has had his way since he joined the skins. Zorn tried to change that & got publicly dissed. I just don't believe everything is fine & well w/them. At the same time though, if both just conduct themselves as professionals & don't speak to the media about each other, this could be a strictly in house minor conflict that carries on the way so many personality conflicts do in work settings. It's likely no big deal unless CP wants to start calling zorn out publicly again. I'm not so sure that he can control himself once the time comes though.

Sure hope you're right. I'm not about to sing the praises of PFT, but they have been right before. In fact, they might be right the majority of the time. Not that that means too much, do you want to rely on a newspaper that is 51% accurate?

On the other hand, there is a good chance IMO that there is some validity to this story. I'm basing that on the past season & on CP's comments to the Wash. Times.

We have to realize this is only CP's 2nd coach here, and the 3rd of his career. He also got a new position coach last year. Riggins' comments were spot on IMO, CP has had his way since he joined the skins. Zorn tried to change that & got publicly dissed. I just don't believe everything is fine & well w/them. At the same time though, if both just conduct themselves as professionals & don't speak to the media about each other, this could be a strictly in house minor conflict that carries on the way so many personality conflicts do in work settings. It's likely no big deal unless CP wants to start calling zorn out publicly again. I'm not so sure that he can control himself once the time comes though.

I think at this point, Zorn probably just needs to work with Portis more with communicating to him about playing time and how it benefits everyone if someone as effective as Betts would be able to come in and let Portis rest and keep him fresh. I think Portis is the type of player that doesn't like coming off the field; he's not stupid, he just lets his pride blur his perception. He's also probably insecure like someone else mentioned, but this same insecurity and issues with playing time are the same things that have driven him to be successful.

I understand all of the criticism put on Portis because of his behavior, but there's always 2 sides to everything and how things are perceived. But the reality is that Zorn is a head coach and part of his job is to manage his players and that includes their personality and situations. It should be expected that Zorn puts more effort and takes more initiative (than Portis) in resolving their differences. After all, didn't he do that when there was a perceived lack of confidence in Campbell with the attempted trades for other quarterbacks to take his spot?

I think at this point, Zorn probably just needs to work with Portis more with communicating to him about playing time and how it benefits everyone if someone as effective as Betts would be able to come in and let Portis rest and keep him fresh. I think Portis is the type of player that doesn't like coming off the field; he's not stupid, he just lets his pride blur his perception. He's also probably insecure like someone else mentioned, but this same insecurity and issues with playing time are the same things that have driven him to be successful.

I understand all of the criticism put on Portis because of his behavior, but there's always 2 sides to everything and how things are perceived. But the reality is that Zorn is a head coach and part of his job is to manage his players and that includes their personality and situations. It should be expected that Zorn puts more effort and takes more initiative (than Portis) in resolving their differences. After all, didn't he do that when there was a perceived lack of confidence in Campbell with the attempted trades for other quarterbacks to take his spot?

true, I'm not trying to discount Zorn's role in the matter,he's got to walk a fine line between being the boss & showing some empathy, especially to his stars like CP. He didn't appear to handle Portis' comments last year too well, but it was really his first time as a head coach being on the spot like that.

My fear is that Danny & Gibbs created a monster & have stuck Zorn w/him. If Portis can get his way w/Zorn it will not be good for the team. Zorn values preparation, you can tell by the way he speaks of players & his offensive strategy. If Portis continues to miss a lot of practices, this will become an issue again.

NBC has been in the broadcating/news/sports business for a while now; they probably have a person or two there who know their ass from their elbow. NBC is owned by General Electric - - another company that has been around a while and might just know something about good business practices.

So, if I read the general sentiment here correctly, all of the folks who make decisions at NBC and GE are dumbasses to the highest order while the folks here are smart enough to discern that Mike Florio is a bubblebutt.


You may all be right - - but on the basis of track record, let me say that I'd probably go with the judgments of the folks at NBC and GE.That doesn't translate into Mike Florio knows s**t about football analysis or journalistic accuracy/integrity.

Matty's take is spot-on: Florio = Perez Hilton

The guy can say/post stupid crap to create false controversy and generate hits, what a talent. When I read or hear something from a reliable source then I'll take notice.

Doubt it will do much. PFT will continue to do what it always does. Take any and all rumors and post them without a filter. It's not too different from NBC's relationship with rotonation.com or rotoworld.com (whatever it's called).

You know it's not even so much rumors anymore as "things that could happen" or "how I think someone feels about something" etc

Guy doesn't even have a base for his "rumors" anymore. Like the Landry trade thing, Redskins interested in Favre, etc none of that had ANY backing.. just situations that he mulled over in his head.