Seth Vigdor
The NFL headlines this week have been dominated by the Odell Beckham-Josh Norman shenanigans from Sunday. Beckham was very worked up and clearly flustered by the day’s events and clearly didn’t handle things well. Even Ray Lewis told him in a phone conversation that he went “too far.” So far, Beckham has been suspended for one game and Josh Norman has been fined more than $26K for their roles in the game.
The Giants response to Beckham’s actions have been to call out the pregame actions of the Panthers, who brought out a baseball bat to the field, as is per the norm each and every week now. Panthers head coach Ron Rivera says they use the bat as a motivational tool. Below you can see a video that shows the bat on the field.
https://www.instagram.com/p/_kOA3pzezC/?taken-by=jayglazer
Rivera has since come out and stated that they will not bring the bat on the field going forward.
Besides the role of the baseball bat, the Giants have brought up some specific trash talk from the Panthers, that involved allegedly hurling gay slurs Beckham’s way. To this moment, Ron Rivera has denied any homophobic slurs were directed towards Beckham.
Michael Irvin told Gary Myers of the New York Daily News that he’s spoken to Beckham three times this week and that the slurs are the norm for Beckham to hear throughout the year.
He deals with it a lot. For some reason, everybody goes after him with gay slurs. He’s a different kind of dude. He has the hairdo out, he’s not the big muscular kind of dude. The ladies all love him. He’s a star. I wonder why people are going in that direction. It blows my mind. I told him he can’t let stuff that people say get to you. “I don’t think I’ve ever really seen the animosity towards a receiver ever in the league right now what’s going towards this young kid. He’s contrite about it. He can’t believe that it’s pretty one-sided. The attacks are pretty one-sided. He feels so bad this is happening. He also feels like he’s been targeted. I think a lot of players are so upset that he’s getting so much press, so much exposure, without winning.”
Asked how he would handle being in Beckham’s position, Irvin said the following.
I would like to think I could handle it correctly. But I can’t promise you that. Really, nobody can. That is why they give you leniency for crimes of passion.”
At this point, things have totally spiraled out of control. Football is a competitive sport, so the trash talking will always be present – as it should be, in my opinion. However, there’s a difference between trash talk and launching homophobic or racial slurs on each other. I wish that I had faith that the NFL could investigate this matter properly – but I don’t.