Former Chanticleer Norman feisty and fun at Super Bowl 50 opening night

As his breakout season reaches its grandest stage, Carolina Panthers cornerback Josh Norman was a predictably popular attraction at Super Bowl 50’s Opening Night media event Monday.

That ranged from one reporter asking the former Coastal Carolina star questions about dabbing that were not suited for a family audience to young kids inquiring about his favorite animal and favorite interception of the season.

To Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders joining him on his dais to reignite conversation about Norman’s infamous spat with New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. in a game last month, which led to Beckham being suspended the next week.

As he did all evening in his Super Bowl media day debut, Norman stood his ground and reminded Sanders that he wasn’t too pleased with the commentator’s analysis in the aftermath of that game.

“What [do] you think we’ve got going on?” Norman said, laughing. “At the same time, I really didn’t agree with what you had going on with Odell and that whole situation. ... I felt like you had took his back on some stuff and you said something like, if he was your son, you would have gave him props, ‘Go out and do your thing.’ You said that, but it was like, ‘OK, this is a man running 10 yards at full speed trying to take me out.’ That’s what you’re going to pat on the back and be like, ‘Good job’?”

He told Sanders he only trash talks with players who ask for it, noting that he doesn’t bring that vocal approach when covering Atlanta Falcons receiver Julio Jones.

As for Beckham, that feud still seems fresh for Norman.

“I told coach to take me out of the game because I couldn’t be in there with that,” Norman recalled. “But at the same time, I understood the situation – I had to go through some things. And I think coach let me go through that to not only make me better as a person, to make me better as a football player because I understand in life those things come to you. How you fight back and how you handle that determines the man you’re going to become.”

Norman later told Sanders he appreciated him and called him “the best to [have] ever done it.”

Asked to clarify if Sanders was there to broker peace, Norman said, “I don’t know. Deion is one of the greats that played the position. He was definitely at the top when he was playing, and you’ve got to respect that. He’s in the Hall of Fame for a reason. So I definitely respect that and respect what he’s talking about. I just think that whole situation just got blown out of proportion at some point in time. ... I guess if that was a peace treaty, I didn’t have any problems with him.”

But as for peace between he and Beckham, Norman said, “Oh, I don’t know about that. I don’t know that question.”

It wasn’t all serious for the former Chanticleer on Monday night – far from it.

One reporter brought him a photo of him on his horse, Norman made a young girl put on a Panthers nacho libre wrestling mask before she could ask her question and overall he spent most of his alotted hour with the media laughing and having fun.

But, again, he wasn’t going to back down from a challenge.

Toward the end of his session, Norman was asked if he was worried about facing Denver Broncos star wide receiver Demaryius Thomas on Sunday and how he has had trouble against bigger-bodied receivers.

“What troubles have I had with these strong receivers? Name one,” Norman countered.

“Julio Jones,” the reporter answered.

“What trouble did I have with Julio Jones?” Norman asked.

“He did some work ... on the secondary,” the reporter continued.

“On the secondary. Well what I recall, he only had like 55 yards [against me]. And for me, that’s a bad game, but for anybody else that’s a great game,” Norman said. “So 55 yards is the most a guy ever had on me in one game. So if you want to go back, you can check the stats. So if we get a big receiver, I think we love it more so than a small receiver. You may want to check the stats next time.”

As usual, Norman didn’t disappoint Monday night.

This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Former Chanticleer Norman feisty and fun at Super Bowl 50 opening night."