ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Cornerback Josh Norman needed a small plane — Redskins One, courtesy of Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder — to fly the people who believed in him to Washington to officially sign his new $75 million contract.
He would have had to get a 747 to fly all the people who didn’t believe in him.
Norman is a magna cum laude graduate of Chip On Your Shoulder University. There are plenty of pretend alumni from this school, athletes who have manufactured slights and disrespect for motivation — Michael Jordan being the most celebrated of those frauds.
There is no greater performance-enhancing substance than the chip on the shoulder, but some players don’t need to add such PEDs. For some, it is part of their DNA.
Norman is one of those guys.
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That’s good. Teams want a roster full of those guys — guys who fought for everything they had to get to the point where they, like Norman, finally have someone who believes in them. The Redskins believe enough in Norman to pay him up to $75 million for five years — $36.5 million guaranteed in the first two seasons — on Friday, making him the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL.
“I look forward to getting back to the playoffs here,” Norman, a member of last season’s NFC champion Carolina Panthers, said on the team-produced “Redskins Nation” show on CSN Mid-Atlantic. “You guys went last year. I’m looking forward to going even deeper into the playoffs and then the Super Bowl. That’s our motto that’s here. That’s the goal. That’s the ultimate goal.”
Someone should tell Norman that mottos are not a good idea at Redskins Park. When you get caught up in mottos, you forget your why.
Norman, 28, has lived by one motto, though, a welcome one — he’s going to prove everyone wrong.
“I was always an underdog,” Norman told The Shelby Star, his hometown newspaper, in 2015. “Coming out of high school, I was an underdog. Even in college, I had some things said about me that weren’t true. But, at the same time, that was something I had to wear on my arm as a badge of honor.”
You hear these sort of cliches so often they often seem meaningless, but Norman has the disrespected resume to back up his underdog claims.
He was on the Greenwood High School state championship team in South Carolina in 2007, a two-way playmaker on that team, but no Division I scholarship offers. Not one.
“That was the struggle for me,” Norman said. “That was the defining moment of what I was going to become.”
Norman followed his older brother, Marrio, who played on a full scholarship at Coastal Carolina. Norman had to walk on. He would later be given a scholarship and became a standout cornerback, a three-time all-Southern Conference selection. After leading Coastal Carolina in tackles and passes broken up, Norman was also named to The Associated Press’ Championship Subdivision all-America team and was a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award, given to the most outstanding Championship Subdivision defensive player.
NFL teams were not impressed. He was a fifth-round pick by the Carolina Panthers in 2012 and was the 12th cornerback taken.
He has since risen to become one of the game’s best cover corners, and, after a season in which he had four interceptions, 16 passes defended and 56 tackles for Carolina last season, he was given the franchise tag and expected to, at the very least, stay with the Panthers through next season, set to earn $14 million. Late last week, Carolina general manager Dave Gettleman pulled back that franchise tag, claiming it appeared unlikely they could reach a long-term contract with Norman.
That made Norman a free agent, and the Redskins pounced. It is reminiscent of the old, dysfunctional was of doing business at Redskins Park — save for several key differences. They are paying him as he enters his prime, and it is not a long-term debilitating contract.
One more thing — the chip. It is who Norman is.
You value those players. Pierre Garcon is one, a sixth-round pick from a Division III school who made his money when he signed a $42 million deal with Washington in 2012. Garcon still plays as if someone is trying to take away everything he has fought for. Former Redskins coach Mike Shanahan once said he wished he had a roster full of Pierre Garcons.
They have added one to the roster from the same school: Chip On Your Shoulder University.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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