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7:02 am | October 19, 2018 | Go to Source | Author:

10:42 AM ET

ASHBURN, Va. — Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman once cashed in on his rivalry with Dez Bryant. That doesn’t mean he’ll miss facing the receiver Sunday when the Redskins host the Dallas Cowboys.

Dallas cut Bryant in the offseason and he remains unsigned. So instead of a Norman versus Bryant storyline dominating the week, it’s simply about the game — and that’s fine with Norman.

“I get a little sigh of relief from all the chatter and can have a quiet game. It’s nice,” Norman said Thursday.

Their rivalry began three years ago, when Norman played for the Carolina Panthers and held Bryant to two catches for 26 yards on Thanksgiving. Afterward, Norman fired the first volley.

“Hey, they need to get Dez’s 70 mil back,” Norman told reporters.

When Norman signed with Washington during the 2016 offseason, it meant he’d face Bryant twice a year in the NFC East. Which meant they’d be a storyline each time.

Their second meeting in 2016 contained fireworks as well, with the two getting in each other’s face during the game; they had to be separated on the field afterward. Bryant caught 5 passes for 72 yards, but only had 2 for 19 versus Norman, who covered the receiver everywhere but in the slot.

Bryant said after the game, “I honestly feel like the guy is extremely soft. He’s a bunch of talk. If he was out and about, I wouldn’t dare on my life let him talk to me like that.”

To which Norman replied, “It’s like I’m trash, and he beat me all day. I just don’t get it. Like I said, if that boosts his ego or feeds his fuel or whatever he’s got in his head, so be it. But we’ve played the game three times already, and my numbers speak for themselves. He can go cry, holler, hoot, whatever he wants to do. At the end of the day, like I said, zero touchdowns.”

They cashed in on their rivalry in 2017, making a commercial for Samsung Galaxy and poking fun at the other. But the on-field rivalry simmered. Now it’s gone.

“I don’t miss it at all,” Norman said Thursday. “It’s a relief, if anything. I think the media moreso misses it than we do, just leading up to it and all the antics that come along with it.”

But Norman couldn’t help poke the Cowboys a little bit. UFC fighter Conor McGregor attended Dallas’ 40-7 win over Jacksonville and was on the sideline before the game and even participated in a pregame huddle with some players, trying to get them fired up. When Norman was asked Thursday who he’d bring in to get the team hyped, he had a quick reply.

“It wouldn’t be him, it would be the guy that beat him,” Norman said, referring to Khabib Nurmagomedov. “I don’t understand why they got him. I’m just saying. If I can call that guy, he can come back over to the States. I would definitely bring him here for that match.”