There is no one better at drawing attention to himself through bashing the Carolina Panthers than Rodney Harrison. He's turned it into an art form on Sunday nights and apparently throughout the week as well.
His latest salvo comes in the form of an interview with Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer where he points out Julio Jones -- despite being locked down -- is better than Josh Norman.
“If the entire situation was equal, with Julio Jones having a quality quarterback throwing to him, then I think Julio Jones wins that matchup because I just think he’s physically more superior than Josh. That’s not taking anything away from Josh.
"Julio Jones is a hell of a football player. He’s one of the top five players in this league.”
We can debate the merits about Matt Ryan and how he's played this year all we want (or not at all; he's been terrible). But let's not act like Julio's suffering through some horrible career without a quality quarterback.
Not sure we should act like he did anything against Norman either. Julio finished the game with 88 yards, but per Pro Football Focus, just 33 of those came against Norman. The Falcons star was targeted six times while being covered by the Panthers cornerback and caught 4 passes for a down day in a total blowout.
Naturally Norman isn't thrilled with Harrison and reiterated (he previously tweeted about it) in a separate interview with Fowler he thinks Harrison is "horrible" at his job.
“You are an analyst and that means reporting the truth, not some mythological thing that you have in your head that’s not factual information," Norman said. "That’s why I say you are horrible at it. ... If you had done your homework, you would have seen I played this guy twice last year and it was the same outcome. So I don’t know what you want to see that I haven’t done.”
Harrison also told Norman to "shut up and be professional," and, really, that's just the beginning of it. The whole article is worth a read primarily because it's just smack-talk back and forth between Harrison and Norman, except it's being done through Fowler.
Norman's the best corner in football this season and he's locking down everyone in his path, including Harrison.
