Josh Norman believes the Carolina Panthers were holding him back.

In a recent interview with ESPN The Magazine - set to be released in this week's edition - Norman discussed a variety of topics, including his recent departure with the Panthers. Norman claimed the Panthers didn't want him to become a face of the team like quarterback Cam Newton and linebacker Luke Kuechly.

“They kind of shunned me,” Norman said. “They turned down a lot of stuff for me, interviews, sponsorship deals, stuff I didn’t even know about. They wanted it to be about the two main guys, Cam [Newton] and Luke [Kuechly].”

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The Panthers are a largely conservative organization on the surface by nature, so the claim perhaps has some merit. That said, Newton is far from the most conventional quarterback in the world, and Carolina lets him do his thing.

Norman, who called the Panthers a "dictatorship" in the article, clearly still has some sour feelings with how things ended in Carolina. It's unlikely you'' see a response from any Panthers' brass going forward.