By now, you’ve likely heard that Odell Beckham, Jr. had quite a rough Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. OBJ spent the majority of the game entrenched in a heated, violent battle with Panthers cornerbacks — most notably Josh Norman — which may have been sparked by Carolina players threatening him with baseball bats in pregame warmups. Regardless, the wide receiver’s actions during the Giants’ loss led to the NFL handing him a one-game suspension on Monday.
Prior to Monday Night Football‘s Saints-Lions contest, ESPN analyst and former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis revealed that Beckham came to him for advice after Sunday’s game. Lewis relayed what he told the receiver for viewers:
“I said, ‘Bro, you went too far. The consistency of what you’re doing, going after him every play? No way! Like, there’s many ways to get back at him.’ But to listen to him, how destroyed he was inside because he knows the mistakes. His thing is, I don’t ever want to hurt my team, I just want to fight for my team.”
Without going into a lot of detail or addressing the bat incident specifically, Lewis also touched on what sparked Beckham’s behavior on Sunday.
“He was really challenged. A bunch of guys from the Carolina Panthers said a bunch of things, how they was going to hurt him and a bunch of other things about who he is as a person. Do I address and say do what you did? Absolutely not, and I told him that. But I’m gonna also tell you, ‘Don’t you ever let a man question your manhood like that.'”
Much like Beckham, Lewis himself was a polarizing figure during his playing days, known for his brash antics and fiery personality. The linebacker said he’d been in Beckham’s shoes before, but the situation was corrected with swift leadership, something Lewis believes was lacking with the Giants.
“I got a problem with nobody going to grab him,” Lewis said. “If you see somebody’s out of control like that … one time I was out of control myself like that, but [former Ravens linebackers coach] Mike Singletary came and grabbed me as a man and said, ‘You’ve lost your mind, you have to calm down.’”
