ASHBURN — Asked Thursday if it will be weird to play against the Dallas Cowboys without Dez Bryant, Josh Norman laughed. He paused to think about it and then admitted, “it probably will be.”
But that doesn’t mean the Redskins cornerback will miss facing his former rival.
The Redskins and the Cowboys meet Sunday at FedEx Field, but Bryant won’t be part of the action after Dallas released the wideout in April.
“I don’t miss it at all,” Norman said. “It’s a relief if anything. I think the media more so miss it more than we do. It’s just the leading up to it and all the antics that come along with it. And all the people outside in and the noise.
“But it’s a football game when you get down to it. It’s not just one versus one. It’s a team versus a team and you’ve got to look at it like that. We get to play a good team this week, man.”
The history between Bryant and Norman has been well-chronicled. When Norman was still with the Carolina Panthers in 2015, the cornerback suggested the Cowboys needed to get “Dez’s 70 million back” after holding the wide receiver to two catches for 26 yards in a game.
After Norman signed with the Redskins in 2016, the rivals had a scrappy meeting on Thanksgiving, when the two got in each other’s faces following a play.
The action didn’t end there, either. Norman and Bryant continued to trash talk each other in separate postgame interviews with the media.
The beef carried into the offseason — with Norman telling Bleacher Report that Bryant was “just a guy.”
But the rivalry soon started to take a lighter tone. In a national advertising campaign for Samsung, Norman and Bryant shot separate commercials in which both players poked fun at the other.
During the 2017 season, Norman and Bryant faced off against each other without an incident. Norman had called them “advertising buds.”
Following Bryant’s release, Norman told Fox Sports 1 that the receiver had a “lot left in the tank.” He even told TMZ he would be open to Bryant joining the Redskins.
That, obviously, didn’t happen. Bryant still remains unsigned over a month into the season.
So how will it be for Norman not to face him?
“You just get a sigh of relief from all the chatter,” Norman said. “A quiet game. It’s nice.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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