The tension last year, at times, filtered down to the players. They felt the chilliness that existed between the offensive and defensive coaching staffs — mostly among men who no longer remain in Washington.

Want to know why Gregg Williams didn’t get the head coaching job in Washington?

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“There was a lot of friction between the staffs because there were two very strong personalities,” one veteran player said. “Coach [Joe] Gibbs was going to do things how he wanted to do them and Gregg knew how he wanted it done and if you didn’t think the way he did, then you were wrong. Not that he went to guys and said we should be doing this or that, but you could tell by what he said and the way he felt, the way he walked around, that there was a disagreement.”

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The thawing at Redskins Park was evident this weekend. Greg Blache — the guy Gibbs, according to team sources, recommended as his successor — laughed and joked with the media for the first time in two years. He genuinely loves working for Jim Zorn.

The players spoke highly, privately and publicly, of their new coach, Zorn. They love his sincerity, pointing out how he has worked hard to learn every player’s name and talk to them about things other than football and how he wanders from group to group. They also liked how he chastised corner Shawn Springs on Friday.

All of this guarantees nothing.

“A lot of things we won’t know until it happens,” one veteran said. “How will he handle Clinton Portis taking off training camp? Those things will test him, but some of those things won’t come up because guys won’t want to take advantage of him.”

The friction, for now, is gone.

“I don’t think we’ll have that this year,” corner Fred Smoot said. “I don’t know why that happened last year, but everything is in place.”

Clinton vs. LaRon

It started innocently enough. Clinton Portis caught a screen to the left, reversed field and tried to turn the corner. However, LaRon Landry took a terrific angle and tracked him down before he could get upfield. Chatter followed. It continued into the locker room.

And the next thing the players knew, Landry and Portis were lined up in a far end zone, with another player standing 40 yards away. Approximately 25 players sat on a grassy hill to watch.

“I’ve got my money on Landry,” defensive end Chris Wilson said.

Smart move. Portis burst to the lead after 20 yards, by a good step. But Landry pulled even and, by most accounts (read: not Portis’) won by a whisker.

“CP has burst, but defensive backs are used to chasing,” corner Fred Smoot said. He then tracked down Carlos Rogers, “Hey, ‘Los, pay me!”

Said Portis, “Look, I’m 27 in a couple months and he’s 22. What does that tell you? ... If he wants to feel like he won, then he won. ... I hope Jim [Zorn] counts that as one of my OTAs.”

Landry then made his way over and said, “Everyone saw it. At the 25-yard mark, I was looking straight up at the sky and you’re looking down [running hard]. I knew I was gonna win.”

This isn’t over.

A disturbance in the force

When Georgetown center Roy Hibbert participates in the Orlando pre-draft camp later this month, he’ll have to show teams something he didn’t show enough of in college: athletic ability in the paint.

And that’s why some view him as a late first-round guy despite being 7-foot-2 and 272 pounds.

“He’ll probably go first round,” one NBA executive said, “he’s done enough to go in the 20s. For me, he’s a career backup. What does he do better than anyone else to give him court time?”

The executive also called it “disturbing” that Hibbert isn’t more impressive inside.

Hibbert, a senior, averaged 13.4 points and 6.4 rebounds a game this past season.

But the executive said Hibbert does not always play to his size.

“He has long legs, but if you don’t use it, you don’t own it,” he said.

In case you missed it

Former NBA star Derrick Coleman denied a New York Post report that said he would need a heart transplant come June 21. However, Coleman, who played in the NBA for 10 years, was hospitalized two weeks ago because of an irregular heartbeat, which was first discovered near the end of his career. Coleman’s wife, Gina, told the Post that Coleman might need a transplant “down the road” but the initial plan is to implant a defibrillator.

On the record

“Everybody probably is racing around the race track scared to death of wrecking Dale Earnhardt Jr., so why wouldn’t I be any different?”

— Kyle Busch talking about causing Dale Earnhardt Jr. to crash at the NASCAR Dan Lowry 400, costing Earnhardt a chance to snap a 72-race skid.

“We’ve been in that position where everyone is kind of waiting for the wheels to fall off of this thing. But we’re a hungry group of guys.”

— New Orleans’ David West after the Hornets Game 1 win over San Antonio.

By the numbers

23:  Seasons 49-year-old first baseman Julio Franco spent playing professional baseball in the Dominican Republic, Asia and North America. Franco, the oldest player to hit a home run in Major League Baseball, announced his retirement this weekend.

25,500:  Fans who attended the Major League Soccer match between Real Salt Lake and the Los Angeles Galaxy in Salt Lake City, a record for Rice-Eccles Stadium, to see L.A. star David Beckham. Beckham scored twice in a 2-2 tie.