When former Panthers cornerback Josh Norman declared after last year’s Thanksgiving game that the Cowboys needed to get their $70 million back from receiver Dez Bryant, Bryant filed that insult away for future use. He used it a year later.
After the Cowboys beat Norman’s current team on Thanksgiving 2016, Bryant declared, “Washington needs to get their money back from Josh Norman.”
Bryant had more to say, directly to Norman. The Washington cornerback said Bryant accosted Norman after the game and said, “Where I’m from we unload the clip.”
Norman added, “I don’t do trash, and that was trash. . . . Whatever you wanna do, do it in the game, but don’t come for me afterward. Don’t do that. That’s overboard. That’s overkill.”
Norman also seemed perplexed by Bryant’s reaction given that Norman handled him fairly well.
“I’m trash and he beat me all day,” Norman said. “I just don’t get it. I don’t understand. But, like I said, if that boosts his ego or feeds his fuel or whatever thing he’s got in his head, so be it. But I’ve played that guy three times already, and my numbers speak for themselves.”
Bryant, predictably, had a different version of the events.
“I didn’t make it personal,” Bryant said, via ESPN.com. “He made it personal. I was just going to come out and do my job, and that’s exactly what I did. He wanted to bump. I let him bump. He got me bumping a little bit, and he made me attack him even more. You know, I honestly feel like the guy is extremely soft. I think he’s just a bunch of talk. If he was out and about, I wouldn’t dare on my life let him talk to me like that. Those words would never came out his mouth. Promise. Promise it wouldn’t. But on another, we got after that ass. Hell of a win. You know, it feels good.”
What surely feels best for Bryant is that the Cowboys are now 10-1, with 10 straight wins -- and two over Washington. Maybe they’ll meet again in January.
