“I said last week, ‘Today was a good day.’ It was. But I didn’t play last week. So maybe I want to change a little bit this week,” he said following the team’s practice Thursday. “But no, again, today was a good day.

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“It feels a little sore, but that comes with the territory of that injury. But it felt fine. I don’t see any problems or reason why I can’t [play].”

Norman suffered the rib injury in the Redskins’ Week 4 matchup with the Chiefs and missed Washington’s past two games. He was hoping to play in Monday night’s loss at Philadelphia, but doctors wouldn’t clear him in time.

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“I don’t know what else to do, man,” a frustrated Norman said in a video he posted to social media on Saturday.

Five days later, Norman was on the practice field at Redskins Park, going through drills with his fellow defensive backs. If all goes well, he’ll be cleared and lined up opposite Bryant on Sunday, wearing extra padding around his ribs.

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The matchup is certainly an intriguing one — both because of the two players’ respective talent levels but also the off-field bombast. Norman told Bleacher Report in the offseason that Bryant, a three-time Pro Bowler, is now “just a guy.”

But then just a few months later, both players agreed to appear in an advertising campaign with Samsung, playing up their rivalry.

“He agreed to it on his side, and I think I was the only one holding it up,” Norman explained Thursday. “I was just like, you know, let’s go through with it, see what happens.”

Norman said shooting the commercial was one of the highlights of his offseason. The two players never crossed paths in filming, but they did have a telephone conversation, which Norman called “cordial.”

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“He had called me, so we had talked a little bit,” he said. “So that’s kind of refreshing. Because before, I’m sure you all know, it wasn’t like that.”

“I guess good money solves and heals everything off the field, right?” Norman joked.

He also called Bryant “a good player. A solid, solid player.” That’s a far cry from what he told Bleacher Report in the offseason.

“He doesn’t ‘wow’ you. For me, he don’t,” Norman had said of the Cowboys’ star. “For other guys, he probably will do the worst to them because he’ll bully them. But you can’t bully a bully. You know what I’m saying? That’s why his game doesn’t resonate to me.”

Perhaps some football observers this season would agree. Bryant is having a relatively quiet year. Through six games he has 327 yards on 28 catches. He has four touchdowns on the year but has yet to top the 100-yard mark in a game.

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“It’s a great rivalry,” Redskins Coach Jay Gruden said. “I think those are two very competitive guys and their personalities are probably similar. I don’t know Dez, but they seem like they are very similar, very fiery guys. [They] want to win, want to produce, want to be in the limelight and make plays and they both have done that in their careers.”

Sunday could another chapter in that rivalry. If the doctors give him the okay, Norman is hoping to line up opposite Bryant and that both players will be at their best in Sunday’s showdown.

“If it does, we ready for it,” he said. “If it don’t, then [we] continue to be advertising buds.”

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