Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman says he thinks NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is "straight horrible" and said he has no problem with the nickname of his new teamin the cover story in the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine.
"I'm part Native American on both my mom's and my dad's side. It's kind of a funny thing, though. A redskin playing for the Redskins," he said,in a story with senior writer Kevin Van Valkenberg.
Norman also says he's the "best cornerback on earth" and asks whenNew York Giants receiverOdell Beckham Jr. is going to "grow up."
The issue with Norman on the cover will be available on newsstands Thursday.
Norman had his franchise tag rescinded by The Carolina Panthers this offseason and then signed a five-year, $75 million deal with Washington in April. He told The Magazine that he felt constrained in Carolina, that he was asked to cut down on his trash talk but he wouldn't because "I'm not a fake."
He said the team's conservative nature made him expendable.
"They kind of shunned me," he said. "They turned down a lot of stuff for me, interviews, sponsorship deals, stuff I didn't even know about. They wanted it to be about the two main guys, Cam [Newton] and Luke [Kuechly]."
In Washington, he said he thinks he can "grow."
"...[I]t feels like everybody can say whatever they want," he said. "It's a free-flowing kind of place. It's like going from a dictatorship to freedom."
He saved some of his most pointed comments for Odell Beckham Jr., who he scrapped with in a late-season game last season that saw both players draw five personal fouls (two against Norman) and saw Beckham ejected and suspended.
Norman, who was head-butted by Beckham, said the effects of that lasted for more than week.
"Everybody saw what he was," Norman told The Magazine. "People from around the league were coming up to me afterward and saying, 'He does that crap all the time.' He lost so much respect from people for that little tantrum. I've already got a couple people telling me, 'OK, I've got a hit out on him.' It's going to be rough for him this year. And he brought it on himself.
"He's skilled and talented," Norman said. "I won't take that away from him. But he's never been through any adversity in his life. It's like, when are you ever going to grow up?"