Josh Norman Got Himself A New Arch Enemy In Dez Bryant

I think it’s fair to say that the guy who came out of the Great Football Beef of 2015 looking the most like a hothead was Odell Beckham Jr. But yesterday’s game between Washington and Dallas, which included Norman getting into it with Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant during and after the game, was a good reminder that it takes two to beef.

Norman covered Bryant, who finished with five catches for 72 yards, for much of the game, but things didn’t really start to get heated until the fourth quarter, when Norman appeared to twist Bryant’s leg after a tackle:

From that point on, the aftermath of just about every play featured a cutaway to Bryant and Norman bumping heads and screaming at each other. Everything culminated with Bryant grabbing a handful of face mask and Norman whipping a towel during the postgame scrum:

After a game like that, postgame media sessions exist for the sole purpose of allowing each player to talk more shit, and Norman and Bryant were up to the task.

Norman went down the “make vague threats of violence” violence path, telling reporters, “Where I’m from, we unload the clip.”

Bryant was in a happier mood, telling anyone within earshot that Washington needed to get their money back from Norman (a callback to the same burn Norman laid on Bryant last year), and joyfully regaling reporters with tales of Norman’s softness:

If there’s a big difference between Norman’s rivalries with Beckham Jr. and Bryant, it’s that the latter seems much better suited to be an effective antagonist:

Norman might want to go elsewhere to look for a rival to replace Beckham Jr. It looks like he bit off a little more than he could chew this time.