Cooler heads have prevailed in an on-field and, later, Twitter spat between Redskins corner Josh Norman and Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant.
"I'm really not trying to talk about that, but I wish I never did what I did, but that's OK because it's over with now," Bryant said Monday, via ESPN.com. "I'm not even focused on that. I'm not even fitting to open up another can. It's all said and done. I wish I'd never done it. It happened. It's over with."
Norman, for what it's worth, continued to take shots at Bryant in an interview with NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport this past weekend, but did add that he was surprised the feud had reached its current height.
"I guess it's just the nature of the game," Bryant said. "It's football, at the end of the day. I have nothing against that guy, I'm pretty sure he's got nothing against me. It is what it is."
While Bryant felt the need to apologize -- mostly for taking away from the phenomenal season Dallas is having right now -- he shouldn't have to.
Our part in this NFL universe involves asking athletes questions moments after they've completed a testosterone-fueled, 60-minute exercise where they are prodded, jammed, shoved and speared by another person directly trying to impede their success. Of course Bryant is not going to have anything good to say about Norman after a game. He's just being honest.
The same goes for Norman, even if he is garnering a reputation as a current-day Cortland Finnegan. Finnegan was known as much for his on-field antagonizing as he was his excellent cover skills. Sometimes we just need to take a step back and realize how difficult it is for a football player to come back down to emotion level zero after a game and give us the answers we'd expect out of a person making that much money or influencing that many children -- whatever caveat people are throwing at athletes these days.
If our coaches can't even do it, why do we hold our players to a higher standard? No need to apologize to us, Dez and Josh.
