NFL says penalties on Josh Norman were good calls

Posted by Michael David Smith on November 5, 2016, 6:07 AM EDT
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After he was called for five penalties against Cincinnati, Washington cornerback Josh Norman said the officiating sucked. Washington coach Jay Gruden added that officials are targeting Norman.

But the NFL says the calls that went against Norman were correct.

NFL V.P. of Officiating Dean Blandino said in a video distributed to the media that when Norman was called repeatedly for illegal hands to the face while playing press coverage on A.J. Green, those calls were correct each time.

“There were several called in this game. They were all fouls,” Blandino said.

Norman may not be satisfied with that answer, but as far as the NFL is concerned, he deserved the penalties he got.

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26 responses to “NFL says penalties on Josh Norman were good calls”

  2. The other part of what Josh said, there were tons of no calls against the Skins. Like the face masking at the goal line. His complaint was the game wasn’t called evenly, & he’s correct.

  4. Very simply; when you’re a high profile player, you get more scrutiny. One thing all the prime-time, replay, review, HD, etc has shown me is; officiating (non-calls, bad calls, too many calls) is equally BAD for all teams. I used to think it was only “my” team, but it isn’t. Pretty much every team gets its fair share of bad officiating and when you have high profile player(s) it seems worst because the focus is on them so you tend to notice when they are getting away with or being called for something.

  5. The NFL’s finding on Josh Norman’s complaint is weird in the sense that it is supposed to substantiate the correctness of their original rulings, but how do we know the latest ruling is correct? Shouldn’t they have one more ruling to establish the correctness of the latest ruling?

  6. Really?

    I’m sick and tired of the NFL in New York analyzing everything from soup to nuts 24/7.

    As Clint Eastwood said in “Heartbreak Ridge,” “You’re beginning to bore the Hell out of me.”

  7. They showed all 4 during the game and they were all obvious. The only reason he came out after the game talking about the officials was to make that the conversation and not how he followed Green on both sides like he wanted and got torched on both sides.
    Instead of answering questions his play all week he changed the subject and the fell for it.

  9. A lot of Hall of Fame players were not big talkers. They were confident and secure. Ronnie Lott, Mike Haynes, Charles Woodson, Rod Woodson, etc. They let their play do their talking. In this era of social media, some of the biggest talkers become the most popular players despite the weaknesses on the field. They run their mouths every time they do something good, and they blame the commissioner every time they do something bad. There’s a guy in Seattle and one in Washington who fit this to a tee. If you actually watch these guys play, they commit more fouls than anyone. They only make plays when their dominant front seven create a lot of balls being thrown up for grabs. When the pressure up front isn’t there, and these guys need to cover one on one, they can’t do it, so they throw a fit and blame the commissioner. Welcome to 2016.

  10. His mouth gets him targeted more. If he shut his trap and just played, he wouldn’t highlight himself so much.

  12. As mentioned above, Norman wasn’t complaining about the fouls on him. He was, quite correctly, complaining about the blatant personal fouls the refs were missing while worrying about his tapping the facemask of AJ Green. I agree with him. I have no problem with those fouls as long as you are calling all of them. They didn’t. There was a helmet to helmet hit on Jackson that took him out of the game and a facemask that looked absolutely nasty with Crowders helmet getting turned sideways and whipped around but the refs were oblivious to those fouls that actually risk player safety. I’m not even going to get into the offensive PI call that shouldn’t have happened that stalled a late drive.. The refs did suck. The league should be embarrassed..

  13. The amount of focus and the standard applied is not the same ref to ref play to play team to team game to game. Close scrutiny of any single play like what is done with replays will likely reveal cause for a flag. The commentators droning on and on about these and glorifying player whining is what’s ruining the game for many fans.

  14. Blandino opens his mouth, lies come out. Standard NFL operating procedure for anyone at 345 Liars Ave

  15. One thing most of us can agree on was that A.J. Green humiliated Norman on the field all day long. It took every dirty trick in the book for Norman to even be competitive on some plays. I don’t think he won one matchup where there was a contestable ball to be caught. Green even made several catches where Norman had no interest in playing the ball but just to mug Green so that he wouldn’t catch it and still lost. Norman’s ONLY saving grace was the moronic media who ran with the refs sucked story instead of reporting on what really happened. All in all, can’t get too excited about a tie but if there was a story to come out of London it wasn’t the poor officiating.

  16. Translation – Norman is marked – expect calls to continue, especially once you start identifying officials.

  18. Every play could have a penalty called. That’s the problem. They pick and choose when to call them and who to call them on. That’s where many players and fans take issue with how the games are managed by officials. Of course Blandino knows this. He – and the rest of the league office – just don’t care. Not about the players. Not about the fans.

  20. Even with Josh Norman trying to get into Green’s head by pushing off on his facemask almost every play.

    Green > Norman

  21. Let’s be honest – this isn’t about being targeted by officials. Josh Norman is a pretty handsy player. Sometimes he gets away with it, sometimes he doesn’t.

  22. Norman is a great player but he doesn’t have the size or physicality to hang with big WRs like Green. Sometimes you gotta take the penalty to save a touchdown. Just don’t cry about it later.

  24. Thats what happens when you are just average and green comes to town, you gotta cheat, lmao and he still lost

  25. Blandino is a gutless liar. I’m not even a Redskins fan and didn’t even watch the game but Blandino’s word is so worthless I believe the Redskins’ side in this matter. Everything he says is trying to justify and cover up horrible officiating.

  26. Josh is one of the chosen CB’s in the league that gets away with holding and physical play with WR’s. And he got so use to getting away with it that when he is called he doesn’t like it. Way to get it twisted Josh.

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