Josh Norman claims he would still be with the Carolina Panthers if he had not been left in the dark by the team and his agent after the franchise tag was placed on him.
On Monday, Norman told David Newton of ESPN.com that he made a last-minute effort to sign the franchise tag or work out a one-year deal with the Panthers after the team rescinded the offer.
“My agent called them up and said if they wanted to do something, like a one-year, market-value [deal],” he explained. “We wanted to come back. They said they weren’t willing to, so we had to do what we had to do. My hands were tied in the whole thing.”
Norman has since fired the agent, Michael George, who apparently could not come to any sort of agreement with Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman. The Panthers rescinded the tag last Wednesday. George and Norman were reportedly seeking a contract worth more than $15 million annually, while the Panthers are said to have offered $44 million over four years.
Norman says he had no idea the two sides were so far apart.
“Then again, it goes to show how much they value me,” he said of the Panthers. “I kind of got a little read into it when they talked about who their core guys were and I wasn’t mentioned in that core.
“So, shoot, man, it started all setting in my mind to where I never would have been there [long-term] anyway.”
When the Panthers decided to rescind the tag, Norman was already in the process of hiring a new agent. He had the new agent, Michael Williams, call Gettleman to see if anything could be done. Norman says he would have simply signed the tag if he knew the Panthers were prepared to move on.
“If I would have known, we could have come to some kind of agreement to where, all right, if this is the case, let me get this out of the way and we can work on something different,” he said. “I didn’t know all that went down like it did. If would have known that, of course I would have liked to have stayed there. Why would I want to leave there? But (Gettleman) tied my hands in the whole process.”
While Norman obviously fired his agent for a reason, he placed equal blame on Gettleman for keeping him in the dark.
“What would it be like if you heard the news you spent all these years [with one team] and overnight you have to change your underwear somewhere else?” the Pro Bowler said. “I’ve still got love for Carolina. But I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.”
Norman, who signed a five-year, $75 million contract with the Washington Redskins over the weekend, has already made it clear that he was blindsided by Carolina’s decision. Players often wait to sign their franchise tender to see if a long-term agreement can be reached, so you can understand why he didn’t think this would be the outcome. A similar situation is going on in Denver, and do you think the Broncos are going to let this guy go?
In any event, the Panthers have a serious void to fill at their top cornerback position.
