Portis's Latest Role: Adulthood

Video

Redskins Unrestricted: July 22

The Washington Post's Jason Reid discusses the details of the team's first day of training camp.

» LAUNCH VIDEO PLAYER

He also dismisses the notion that Gibbs and the organization catered to the wishes of a prominent skill-position athlete. "I do abide by the rules of this team," Portis said. "I never thought I was bigger than the Washington Redskins and tried to make myself a coach's pet . . . and be Mr. Snyder's friend or Vinny's friend," he said. "You know, I sit down and talk to Mr. Snyder and say something to Vinny. I respect them as men and I think they respect me as a man. It's really just living life.

"A lot of people live life on the edge, scared about tomorrow. I don't know if I'm going to be here tomorrow, so I'm going to get my enjoyment out of today."

"I go to church and pray," he said. "I'm not the best Christian. I'm not a James Thrash or Antwaan Randle El. I still do wrong. I don't go out to strip clubs and chase women and be out drinking and driving out in public.

"But at the same time, I live as a 26-year-old. I'm not married. I'm not disrespectful. I live my life as a young guy who don't know what tomorrow will bring. I would hate to offend anybody or rub anybody the wrong way. I have a girlfriend. I do. I love her dearly. But at the same, at 26 -- I mean, I'm livin'."

Portis also said he's more "accepting and knowing."

"Now most of the time I think about things: 'Is this me playing around, playing a practical joke? Or is this me hurting somebody's feelings? Should I say this?' I think about my actions. I don't want to affect the person next to me. I don't ever want the person next to me feeling like I'm putting them down or belittling them."

Taylor's passing, the years under Gibbs and fatherhood have undeniably changed Portis. But in other ways he remains the same kid whose father would drive from his native Mississippi home to take his son to Jackson State or Mississippi Valley State. Or Saints games in New Orleans, where Dalton Hilliard became his first athletic hero.

Before he went to a Pro Bowl and the NFL playoffs and rushed for 7,715 yards, he was the child of Rhonnel Hearn, the ultra-supportive mother who came to see him play as a kid, the mother who still comes to see him play.

"After every game, whether I got 30 yards or 200 yards, I'm going to get the same hug, I'm going to get the same speech, I'm going to get the same love and I'm going to have the same meal that I want her to cook when I go home," Clinton Portis said. "And it's going to be that. It's going to be no more C.P. the football player. It's going to be, 'Clinton, my son.' "