The Norman Saga

By: Connor Lenahan

Well, okay, two days isn’t all that much of a saga, but boy did this story get weird quickly. This time a week ago Josh Norman was the star cornerback for the Super Bowl runner-up Carolina Panthers, one of the best defensive players in football, and an anchor of a talented defense that would presumably wreck teams again in 2016.

Now he is a member of the Washington DC professional football team with a 5 year, $75 million dollar contract.

Wait, what?

Two days ago, for no explicitly clear reason the Panthers took their franchise tag off of Norman, making him a free agent. This isn’t all that common – the franchise tag is used to lock down players for a year without a long term extension. You don’t see this move rescinded.

Suddenly right before the NFL Draft, similarly crazy in stories recently, one of the better defenders in the league became available. So all yesterday and most of today was spent with rumors flying in from nearly half the teams in the league courting Norman. But it took a huge payday to lure Norman in.

Again, $75 million. Norman is heading to DC and unless he suddenly falls off the face of the earth the Washington defense is going to be interesting with Norman and DeAngelo Hall in the secondary. Oh, and the whole Norman vs. Beckham Jr. rivalry now happens twice a season in conference.

This is a weird off season, I love it.