Clinton Portis wanted to kill guys who mismanaged his money

Clinton Portis wanted to kill guys he says mismanaged his NFL fortune.

Former NFL running back Clinton Portis was well on his way to financial freedom, all set up by gaining nearly 1,600 yards in each of his first four NFL seasons.

After he was traded from the Denver Broncos to the Washington Redskins in 2004 in a blockbuster deal involving cornerback Champ Bailey, the Redskins signed Portis to an eight-year contract worth $50.5 million. But there isn't much left from that money. Portis filed for bankruptcy two years ago.

Portis discusses what lead to his financial predicament in this week's Sports Illustrated Where Are They Now issue in a story by Brian Burnsed.

Portis, now 35, says he was set out to find and deal with the men that had led him into bad investments, including sinking $1 million into an Alabama casino, and an investment with Success Trade Securities, which turned about to be a Ponzi scheme.

With gun in hand, Portis sought revenge.

So on several days and nights in 2013, Portis waited in his car near a Washington, D.C.-area office building with a pistol at his side, waiting for one of several men who had lost a portion of his money he had earned playing football.

“It wasn’t no beat up,” Portis told Burnsed. “It was kill.”

A phone call from a friend who was a television producer led Portis to not go after the men.

Where would Portis be if he actually caught up with the men he says swindled him?

"We’d probably be doing this interview from prison,” Portis told SI.