Jamie Mottram's Sports Blog - www.misterirrelevant.com

A while back I posted 26's sensational Esquire interview, but this is somewhat superior because you can listen to the conversation and Portis' distinctive phrasing is always half the fun. What Mick Jagger is to singing, Clinton Portis is to speaking. Of course, I'm skewed because Janky Spanky is my favorite NFL player going and one of my all-time top-six athletes. He's also the last of that bunch -- Will Clark, Art Monk, Cal Ripken, Gilbert Arenas and Darrell Green being the others -- that I've had the good fortune of interviewing on SBL.

In this case, we were at Madden Bowl XIII and I was bird-dogging Clinton as he played at Tampa Bay against some other dude as Washington. Once he was done and didn't appear to be doing anything productive (like drinking with friends or talking to girls), I went over, professed my undying love and asked for a brief interview. Here's the resulting clip, along with highlights and links to other interviews from that night after the photo ...

 Clinton Portis with Jamie Mottram on SBL

-- On never going with the Skins when playing Madden: "I'm the only person who know how to stop Portis." 

-- When asking about his characters, I regrettably refer to Dolemite Jenkins as Dynamite Jenkins. Clinton did not take notice.

-- On befriending fellow Hurricanes-cum-Redskins Santana Moss and Sean Taylor: "I actually hang out with Santana everyday. Sean, you know, he like the home amigo. He stay inside, but you know we always repping for him."

-- On the Hurricanes Super Bowl party: "It was more of a charity event, you know, with sponsors andall that. So itwasn't a wild pool party where you had thongs and all that, women walking around doing whatever."

-- On Agent Zero: "You know, man, I went to Gilbert party. You know, I still got to send him some flowers and a thank you card for inviting me."
 
-- On playing basketball: "I had hoops dreams early on in life ... You put me in a three-point contest, you put me in a free-throw contest I'll go at it all day with you ... I ain't too much for playing pickup games, because everybody ain't got the same thing to lose and I can't get hurt on no humbug."

-- His Super Bowl XLI prediction: "I really think Devin [Hester] could come out Super Bowl MVP and pull off a Desmond Howard-type performance ... But I really think the edge will go to Reggie [Wayne and the Colts]."

Jerome From Southeast DC, ladies and gentlemen! As previously mentioned, there were tons of other players and media types at the party. Here are the others who were kind enough to do interviews with us:

 Alex Smith (SF) | Merril Hoge | Willis McGahee | Shaun Alexander

Update: Amidst the post-Super Bowl rubble I nearly forgot about this video, shot during Madden Bowl after Portis shut off the game due to Alex Smith (TB) sustaining a late drive to preserve the lead. Clinton jokingly disputes the disqualification but is just serious enough that MC Trey Wingo isn't sure how to call it ...

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