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Dez Bryant, Josh Norman scrap, trade barbs during and after Cowboys topping Redskins

Eric Edholm

Dez Bryant and Josh Norman weren’t even matched up to start Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day game between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins. By the end of it, they were raspberry-seed-in-the-teeth close.

Bryant and Norman butted heads several times, mostly in the second half of the Cowboys’ 31-26 win, and then got into things after the clock hit zero.

This shouldn’t be surprising. Their level of passion is on another level, and their rivalry isn’t new. Do you remember last Thanksgiving?

What was surprising was they spoke almost pleasantly to one another early in the game. By the end of it? Forget about it.

Dez Bryant, right, and Josh Norman were calm early but feisty late on Thanksgiving. (AP)
Dez Bryant, right, and Josh Norman were calm early but feisty late on Thanksgiving. (AP)

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They first appeared to lock horns in the third quarter and then did so again in the fourth after Bryant beat Norman on a skinny post down to the Washington 6-yard line.

The Cowboys scored a play later, and the animosity grew. Right when the TV broadcast was fading out, it appeared that Norman threw something (a towel?) at Bryant and Bryant grabbed Norman’s facemask. There were enough cool-headed teammates from both sides helping calm things down and keep the two at bay.

So what set them off after the game? Norman said that Bryant told him something pretty fierce point-blank.

Bryant caught five passes for 78 yards, but not all his grabs were against Norman, and Norman wanted to make that clear after the game. When Bryant went into the slot, coverage duty belonged to rookie corner Kendall Fuller, who was overmatched in this game. But Bryant gets the bragging rights — a year after Norman, then a Carolina Panther, bashed Dez’s contract — for having his 10-1 Cowboys win both head-to-head matchups.

On his way into the locker room, Bryant fired the first salvo after the two were separated. And it was a beautiful callback about Norman’s contract.

And hilariously, it didn’t stop there. The game wasn’t over 20 minutes before Bryant hopped on Twitter to let everyone know who won this battle.

For good measure, Bryant felt he needed to give the media just one last morsel of leftovers from this Thanksgiving scrap.

And well after the game on Twitter, Bryant kept throwing jabs.

But at least he cooled off a bit.

Bryant apparently likes his trash talking like we like our cranberry sauce: ice cold.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!