Pro Bowl running back hits the line with momentum of a Mack truck
At Florida's Gainesville High, Clinton Portis was a toothpick-thin sophomore wide receiver who had never played running back. But in the spring of 1997, the Purple Hurricanes needed another runner so that the offense could switch to a two-back system. On the practice field, behind the school and near a creek, Coach Ed Janes asked Portis to give it a go. During a 15-minute goal-line drill against the team's stingy defense, Portis stepped into the backfield behind reserves with mediocre blocking skills.
His Houdini-like moves weren't that much of a surprise. But Portis stunned teammates and coaches with runs packed with punch as much as pizzazz and exhibited a relentlessness that belied his diminutive frame. His uncanny vision left defenders grasping at air.
"We couldn't stop him," Janes recalled, chuckling during a telephone interview from Gainesville this week. "He'd stick his head in there and run tough. That shocked us. He was making those runs where he'd get more out of them than we thought he could. It didn't take a genius to put him at running back."
Portis, 22, is now one of the NFL's elite running backs -- the best, he claims -- and the third player in NFL history to rush for at least 1,500 yards in each of his first two seasons. After being obtained March 3 in a blockbuster trade with the Denver Broncos for Pro Bowl cornerback Champ Bailey and a second-round pick, the 5-foot-11, 205-pound Portis is slated to become the linchpin of the Washington Redskins offense under Coach Joe Gibbs.
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