It’s all water under the bridge now, but as it turns out, Amari Cooper didn’t run his mouth before facing Josh Norman last season.
For Raider fans who have blocked week three of the 2017 season out of mind, this is what Norman said to Cooper (via a postgame interview) following the Redskins 27-10 defeat of the Raiders in Washington:
“You don’t come in here and say what you’re going to put up on somebody. 200 yards? Did he even catch two balls? He only caught one, huh? Don’t come out here and tell me what you’re going to do. Show me. You’re gonna have to run through me to get that and we ain’t lettin’ that happen. So whatever that young cat said, Coop, go on and take it back.”
At the time, there was good reason to believe Norman actually made up the trash talk from Cooper and this week, Norman confirmed suspicions that Cooper never actually said anything at all.
Instead, it was one of Cooper’s college teammates from Alabama who told Norman that Cooper had been running his mouth.
“I really wanted to come out there and make sure they knew, like ‘Please don’t disrespect us before the game,'” Norman acknowledged this week. “Basically, I found out that he lied to me about the whole thing. So I’m like, ‘He didn’t say all that?'”
Norman said Johnathan Allen (Cooper’s Alabama teammate) told him, “Nah, man. I just really wanted to win, man.”
“So I felt bad I couldn’t take it back. So I’m apologizing now to you.”
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