With Clinton Portis about to turn 30 and coming off two injury-riddled seasons, it'd be fair to conclude that the running back's best days are in the rearview mirror.
Don't tell Portis that. He'll be a free agent when the NFL lockout is lifted, and he's confident he has quality football ahead of him.
"I think (age is) just a number," Portis told WTEM-AM in Washington D.C. on Friday. "You're saying I turned 30 (he'll be 30 on Sept. 1), but I had a slate of two years where I really haven't done anything. So right now, I feel good and feel better at this point than I have in a long time, just feeling like I'm completely healthy, just feeling like things are totally healed. And now that I know what I need to do and what I need to get accomplished, I'm fine with that."
Portis enjoyed several elite seasons with the Denver Broncos, who drafted him in 2002, and the Washington Redskins, who acquired him in a 2004. But the NFL grind seems to have worn on Portis, with injuries limiting him to just 13 total games in 2009 and 2010.
"The injuries the last two years has really been a lot of rest for myself," Portis said. "And with the lockout going on this year, I had the opportunity to go out to Arizona and fully recover and train and straighten out some of the things that were ailing me that I didn't even have a clue of."
Portis has an open mind about where he'd like to play next season, though years of losing in Washington have him itching to join a contender.
"Any team I can help. I think I have choices, but any team that I can help that's really a contender," said Portis, who boasts six 1,000-yard seasons. "I would love to go to ... I've always been a fan of Drew Brees, I've been a fan of Philip Rivers, I think the young kid down in Tampa (Josh Freeman) is going to be great. Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Michael Vick, it's a lot of guys.
"I just want to go to an organization that's kind of stable and going to have a set offense and running with what they're familiar with."
