Back, coach say they are on the same page
ASHBURN – They traded barbs last year, with Jim Zorn singling out his star back and Clinton Portis firing away on the radio, sarcastically referring to his coach as a “genius.”
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On the first day of training camp, however, they may as well have exchanged flowers, hugs and kumbayas. Both, they say, are on the so-called same page this season.
“Everything is fine,” Portis said.
“Our relationship has grown,” Zorn said.
It had to. Last season Zorn insinuated that Portis could not finish a game vs. Baltimore because of an injury. Portis denied it and later criticized Zorn on the radio. An offseason report, that both parties denied — privately and publicly — said they clashed in front of the team. But it did happen during last season.
“We just had a couple run-ins in front of the team that we could have avoided,” Portis said. “I could have walked away and didn’t. We had some incidents where I was called out where I wasn’t the only one in that situation. He’s calling me out and letting someone else fly. I addressed that with him.
“We both know what went wrong. We’re past that.”
For now.
“This year I’m sure there will be something we don’t agree on,” Portis said. “That doesn’t mean I don’t like him or I don’t want him around or he don’t want me around. As grown men we’ll butt heads sometimes.”
“We had an incident, that’s all about trying to communicate,” Zorn said, “and being up-front with each other, knowing how each other feels. I’m trying to anticipate those issues before they even rise up.”
Portis was irked about several things last season, from how he was used — or not used — in the second half of the season when he gained only 463 yards, averaging 3.7 yards per carry, to Zorn placing a Friday night curfew on the players while in San Francisco.
“It nearly was [a rebellion],” said Portis, who rushed for 944 yards in the first half of the season. “Everybody was going to skip all of it. They were unhappy. I don’t think you put people in that situation É This year he understands that.”
However, one veteran player said though some players were upset about the curfew, there was no near rebellion. And Zorn said, “That wasn’t a major issue.”
But practice time is an issue. Put simply, Portis does not like to practice much; Zorn prefers he practice more. He also knows that Portis is 28 and has 2,052 career carries, including 342 last season. Which means Zorn knows Portis likely will require extra rest at times.
And that’s what Portis wants.
“I can’t practice the same way I play,” Portis said. “I’d rather be on the field for the game than practice. I’m not trying to get my way and stand above everyone else.”
But Portis did please the coaches by attending most of the offseason workouts, as he did the previous season.
“I wouldn’t have known there would even be a problem,” Zorn said. “But you have to communicate well. Everyone is different. The idea is to get on the same page and that’s what we did. It’s good.”
