Did A Former Redskins Coach Divide The Locker Room Into Christians And Non-Christians?

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In some ways, the Washington Redskins are the never-ending story. The team feels as if it stays in perpetual turmoil. The last seven or so seasons since coach Joe Gibbs retired for the second time have been particularly traumatic. Since Gibbs’ departure in January 2008, the Skins have had three head coaches (Jim Zorn, Mike Shanahan, and now Jay Gruden) and many pundits have already wondered if Gruden is close to getting canned himself.

While Gruden struggles with Kirk Cousins as his quarterback, former Washington star running back Clinton Portis has shed some interesting light on coaches past. On D.C. sports talk radio on Tuesday, Portis, along with former tight end Chris Cooley, gave his thoughts on playing under Jim Zorn and how he compared to Joe Gibbs. Zorn, of course, was a two-year head coach for the Skins hired directly after Gibbs. Zorn was a quarterbacks coach in Seattle when hired. His tenure at Washington these days is best remembered for how he had his play calling duties stripped from him in his second season and the now infamous “swinging gate” on Monday Night Football, a play so awful only the Buttfumble and Colt’s recent fake punt arguably top it.

Zorn was a dead man walking at that point and part of me still believes his call on the swinging gate was a deliberate middle finger to Dan Snyder for taking away his offensive coordinator duties. But if what Portis says is true, he may have lost the locker room well before then. Said Portis:

“Coach Zorn lost the locker room because he split the locker room between Christians and ballplayers,” Portis said. “So if you didn’t believe in what he believed in, if you weren’t Antwaan Randle El — I’m saying it, I’m going to talk, I’m on the radio — if you weren’t Antwaan Randle El, if you weren’t the guys who sat and prayed with him and did everything the way they thought your life should be, you kind of got, ‘Well, you’re not doing right’ speeches directed toward you.

The statement is clear. Portis thinks Jim Zorn lost the locker room by dividing those who bought into his beliefs with those who did not. Chris Cooley was a little bit more diplomatic, but agreed with Portis:

“He’s not wrong, and this is exactly what I was going to say,” Cooley added. “He didn’t do it with intent though. Jim Zorn didn’t come in with intent to say ‘I want Christians.’ But he sold his pitch, his sales pitch was ‘Believe in and have faith in my program.’ And it was basically a sales pitch to a Christian team. It wasn’t ‘We’re going to be smart, we’re going to adapt, we’re going to make sense.’

It’s tough to say if this was indeed a stark divide between Christians and non-Christians specifically. It may have more to do with his coaching style. Cooley goes on to essentially accuse Zorn of forcing players to buy into his entire scheme and life philosophy or not be recognized.

“Literally any time there was anything that came up on offense that was ‘Hmm, this doesn’t make any sense, Jim, why are we doing this?’, it was ‘This was how Bill Walsh did it.’ Much like saying, ‘Go to the Bible and read it.’ It was the West Coast Bible that he sold over and over and over again. Plus, Sherman Smith did come in and give a sermon every single morning. … We’re all hyped about football, Sherman Smith would come in and say this is how we need to live our lives. We’re like, ‘Whoa, I’m fine once I leave leave this building, bro. I want to talk about football.’ ”

Faith tends to be a highly personal thing, and forcing the same structure on everyone clearly didn’t sit well with Cooley or Portis. When asked about how that differs from Joe Gibbs (Who is very outspoken about his faith) both Portis and Cooley claimed that Gibbs was never forceful with his beliefs and was more about encouragement. Maybe that’s why Joe Gibbs is a Super Bowl winning coach who still managed to reach the playoffs in his second tenure with Washington, and Jim Zorn was a flameout who called one of the dumbest plays in NFL history and was gone in less than two seasons. Zorn currently does not have a job in the NFL.

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