Players practicing in fool for trash talks
PHILADELPHIA » Nothing adds drama to Eagles-Redskins games like trash talking.
This is a rivalry where the players start spewing invective before the season begins, and it almost always boils over on the field.
Rest assured that Nigel Bradham, Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham, among other Eagles, will have something to say to Josh Norman, Trent Williams and the Redskins when they get together Monday night at Lincoln Financial Field. Norman, recovering from a rib injury, might even jaw if he doesn’t get in the game.
“Josh Norman can talk like nobody else,” Eagles running back Kenjon Barner said. “I learned that when I was in Carolina with him. Josh is one of those guys who just has a knack for trash talking. There’s a flow. It just comes naturally for some guys. Josh doesn’t get personal. Josh is just a confident dude. Josh would talk trash to one of the best receivers to ever play the game, Steve Smith.”
Eagles or Redskins players, the trash-talker’s message couldn’t be clearer. They let you know they’re there, and they aren’t going anywhere.
Veteran linebacker Bradham is the most relentless trash talker on the Eagles. The mere mention of the term gets him stoked.
“I can’t tell you what I say,” Bradham said. “Everything ain’t bad, but a lot of stuff is. Some stuff would be PG-13, but for the most part it would be explicit.”
While it’s tough for Bradham to remember what he says in the heat of the moment, the same cannot be said for some of the stuff he’s heard. Take the Eagles’ game last week against the Carolina Panthers. Bradham still is shaking his head.
“It’s weird with the offense because they try to be your friend,” Bradham said. “Like, when you’re a good defense, and you go against an offense, the offensive player, they try to be your friend. In the last game, Christian McCaffrey was like, ‘Man, you guys’ front seven – I mean, I just respect it.’ And I was like, ‘You’re going to tell me that during the game? Just give me your heart next time.’”
McCaffrey, and what was left of his heart, finished with four rushes for eight yards and 10 catches for 56 yards in a 28-23 loss to the Eagles.
Norman was relatively quiet in the first game against the Eagles, partly because, as Torrey Smith said, the Philly receivers didn’t give him a reason to get crazy. Two weeks after that game, Raiders receivers Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper threw some smack out pre-game about how they were going to drop some big numbers on the Redskins. Bad idea, especially for Crabtree, who caught one pass.
“Whatever you do, do not run your mouth if you’re a wide receiver and expect to show up on Sundays, because I’m telling you, we are here and we are waiting,” Norman said after that 27-10 Redskins win. “Don’t come out here and tell me what you’re going to do. Show me. You’re going to have to run through me to get that.”
Offensive tackle Lane Johnson made himself a target of scorn for predicting (correctly) that the Eagles would whip the Redskins in the opener. His teammates bailed him out.
Then there’s Sam Bradford. Trading him to the Minnesota Vikings was a good idea, and not just because it landed a first-round draft pick and expedited the development of Carson Wentz. Imagine what it would have been like for Bradford, who Norman ripped for being “soft.”
As it is, this Monday night game should be intense. Several Eagles veterans remain from the team that two years ago let the Redskins clinch a playoff berth at the Linc with a 38-24 triumph.
“They beat us pretty bad,” Barner said.
Redskins running back Chris Thompson recently told his family he didn’t want them at the Linc this Monday because the Eagles, per the report, had some of the meanest fans in the league.
Washington head coach Jay Gruden, who, attended the last game at Veterans Stadium, watching his brother Jon and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Eagles in the 2002 NFC title game, couldn’t help but laugh that off.
“I don’t know about the fans in Philly,” Gruden said on a conference call. “I know they’re very passionate. They’re going to come out and be loud. But I really wouldn’t sit with the crowd, either.”