NFL teams
John Keim, ESPN Staff Writer 6y

After 'DWTS,' Josh Norman says OTA work 'is like picking daisies'

ASHBURN, Va. -- The more Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman danced, the more his perspective on football changed. He no longer views training camp the same way after performing on "Dancing with the Stars," which required some long days and a coast-to-coast commute.

It was a different offseason and an eye-opening one for Norman, who finished second in the competition.

“Nothing I can say is harder than what I did,” Norman said. “You look at training camp as that; I don’t feel that is going to be harder than what I just went through.”

And going through football drills in an OTA setting “is a cakewalk. This is like picking daisies.”

The preparation for "Dancing with the Stars" involved 12-hour workdays. Once a week he’d fly in from Virginia, then go work out for six hours before getting back to his room around 10:30 p.m. -- only to be dressed and ready to work by 7:30 the next morning.

“At last once a week I was up 23, 24 hours. You think training camp gets you like that?” Norman said. “That’s what it takes to go out there and perform like you do,” Norman said. “You see us on TV learning those steps and placements. That was the hardest thing, man. Learning two dances on my second week was like, ugh, are you for real? I never counted on anything like that. That’s not what we do.”

Norman said he did not expect the show to be that difficult. But the added factor for him was that he was still training in Virginia with his teammates. He danced on TV Monday night and was at the first OTA practice Tuesday.

“I knew it was going to take hard work, but I didn't know it was going to take me to a different type of level in mindset just to have to overcome it, that's for sure,” Norman said. “I didn't see I was going to be on the East Coast and West Coast at the same time at least twice a week. But I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I actually went through with it because it taught me a lot about myself. I grew tremendously. I wouldn't have wanted anything else from it than that.”

Norman even said it can help him with football.

“My [footwork] is faster,” Norman said. “High-stepping placement is going to be a bit quicker. I feel I’ll [have better] posture. ... And focus. Focus. When it’s hard, when it’s tough, just be calm.

“My mindset is a bit different. I can go further now than I thought I could and push myself to pretty much a new level, I feel, a new height. So now I look at things and I [used to] be like, 'That's hard.' Nah, I don't think so. I think back to the time like we had here. I feel like I pushed myself to another level and beyond.”

But he didn’t win. Though Norman said he enjoyed the experience -- he said it reminded him of being back in theatre class in college -- he’s also disappointed he didn’t win for his partner, Sharna Burgess.

“My partner was trying to get this for seven years, and this was the year to break that curse and I wasn't the one to do it and it's just like, 'Dang,'” Norman said. “It's like a heart-throbbing, gut-puncher that I couldn't be the one for her to get over the hump.”

Norman did impress his football coach, Jay Gruden, who said he watched each episode.

“The more I watched, the more impressed I was with his ability to learn that stuff because I know I have zero rhythm,” Gruden said. “I would be voted off the first episode. The work ethic he put in, the work he put in to get ready for that show and then also fly back on red-eyes and get here for practice or OTAs, I just really have a lot of admiration for what he did and what he accomplished, man, because that’s not easy. I thought he should have won the dang thing. I think he got ripped off, to be honest with you.”

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