The Odell Beckham/Josh Norman spat in yesterday’s game was odd and may possibly earn Beckham a suspension for the series of cheap shots he took at the Panthers cornerback. Now we have more information on what may have caused all the tension between the two…and it’s a bizarre development.
Adam Schefter and others are reporting that “Panthers officials” and Norman specifically were taunting Beckham before the game by swinging baseball bats and trash talking him.
I'm told there were comments made in direction of Odell Beckham Jr. + other players about how Panthers coming to "beat the s**t out of him."
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) December 21, 2015
Apparently Marcus Ball, a #Panthers practice squad player, was holding a bat pregame. He had to be separated from Odell Beckham pregame.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 21, 2015
Schefter goes on to say that NFL Films captured the incident, which could make for interesting fodder on this week’s episode of Inside The NFL. Beckham reportedly felt threatened, and that “helped put him in a certain frame of mind.”
It doesn’t excuse Beckham’s bush league cheap shots, but the incident does explain just how things began to get out of hand. Commenters on Instagram are mentioning that the Panthers bring out bats during warmups before every game, but they clearly were directing some vitriol towards the Giants sideline, as well.
Panthers however use the bat to symbolize "bringing the wood" a motivational saying among a lot of teams.
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) December 21, 2015
