Advertisement

Josh Norman on Eric Reid ripping Malcolm Jenkins: 'It's like a slap in the face'

Carolina Panthers strong safety Eric Reid, center, takes a knee during the playing of the national anthem last week. (AP)
Carolina Panthers strong safety Eric Reid, center, takes a knee during the playing of the national anthem last week. (AP)

The spat between Malcolm Jenkins and Eric Reid, which played out before Sunday’s Panthers-Eagles game, wasn’t just confined to a video clip of an angry Reid being restrained during the coin toss.

There is a divide, between players on the side of Jenkins and what he has done with the Players Coalition, and Reid’s side that believes those efforts and working with the NFL sold out Colin Kaepernick, who has been effectively kept out of the league after he knelt for the national anthem.

“I believe Malcolm capitalized on the situation,” Reid said after Sunday’s game. “He co-opted the movement that was started by Colin to get his [Players Coalition] organization funded. It’s cowardly. He sold us out.”

Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman, who is part of the Players Coalition that is working for social causes, spoke with reporters for 11 minutes on Reid and Jenkins, according to Rhiannon Walker of The Athletic. He was on Jenkins’ side.

“To hear Eric come out and do what he did, it’s almost like, wow, it’s a slap in the face because Malcolm has done nothing but stand up for the Players Coalition,” Norman told reporters.

Josh Norman says Players Coalition about helping people

Norman spoke about “fiction people and the non-fiction people,” more specifically those “non-fiction people” in the Players Coalition and those who aren’t. He spoke about players “making changes, making true changes” as part of the coalition.

He felt the Players Coalition was “getting really punched in the mouth” with some of the things that were said, and he wasn’t happy with Reid’s stance on the matter.

“He went to the direction of, OK, if Kaepernick is not the leader than this is all for none,” Norman said. “I’m sorry, but if guys voted him to be that, then OK, so be it, but it wasn’t that. He started something at that time in which everybody saw, but what did he do with that? Where was the ball carried from that?”

Norman, whose differences with Reid over the direction of the Players Coalition were outlined in a story on The Undefeated in February, insinuated Reid left the Players Coalition because Kaepernick wasn’t going to be be the leader of it and “two people in the group” wouldn’t meet with the rest of the players because their demands weren’t met.

“What demands? Demand of, ‘If Colin is not the leader then we’re not coming?’ Is that the demand?” Norman said. “Because we’re actually trying to help people out. That’s your agenda, to have someone who’s a leader of something.

“We don’t know what direction you’re trying to go in. We’re all trying to go in the direction of helping people. That’s the main objective here. It’s not who gets this award … it’s not a grade here.”

Norman said he called Eric Reid twice this week but Reid didn’t answer

Norman said he thought Reid should have spoken to him directly, and that he called Reid twice this week but Reid didn’t answer. Norman also took an apparent shot at Reid introducing Kaepernick when Kaeepernick was given the Amnesty’s Ambassador of Conscience Award in April.

“But yet, you get a call, you’re going to show up at awards shows and stuff? Come on man,” Norman said. “But you don’t want to come out and help what we’re trying to do with the Players Coalition? I don’t know, you tell me if that’s not somebody’s agenda.”

Norman said he was sticking up for Jenkins due to Reid’s harsh words about him, and called Reid a “parakeet” before imitating a bird: “What you say Kap, what you say?” Norman did say he respected Reid and Kaepernick and he’s “all for” them making change, he just bristled at the notion that anyone got “sold out.”

“Who comes out on the coin toss and go and confront someone like that? What’s your agenda?” Norman said. “Is it to play football or is it really to go into somebody’s face about what you feel like happened to you? What is that?”

More from Yahoo Sports:
Red Sox snub former star for pregame Series ceremony
Tim Brown: Dodgers headed for disappointment again?
Curry drops 51 points in just 3 quarters
Jeff Passan: The 15 minutes that may have swung the World Series

– – – – – – –

Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Subscribe to The Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast
Apple PodcastsStitcherGoogle Podcasts