What made Odell Beckham Jr. go so batty on Sunday?
Perhaps it all started with a bat.
The Panthers carried a black baseball bat onto the field at MetLife Stadium for pregame warm-ups and, according to sources, one of their players swung it menacingly at Beckham and others made homophobic comments to the Giants receiver prior to the game. Perhaps that explains the state of mind the second-year receiver was in as he engaged in several altercations with Carolina cornerback Josh Norman, attracted three personal-foul penalties and nailed Norman with a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit, a series of altercations that got Beckham suspended one game Monday by the NFL.
On a video posted on the Giants’ Instagram account, Eli Manning is shown greeting his teammates in the pregame warm-ups, with a Panthers player not in uniform — practice squad safety Marcus Ball — in the background holding a black bat. There is also video from NFL Films showing Norman holding the bat in a pregame huddle.
Ball swung the bat menacingly at Beckham and Panthers players shouted anti-gay slurs at him, according to Giants sources.
Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, an NFL Network analyst, said on SiriusXM radio he could not understand why Beckham went so ballistic from the very start of the game, engaging Norman in a series of altercations. Sanders said he reached out to Beckham and others on the scene and got the answer.
“In pregame, Josh Norman is out on the field with a baseball bat,’’ Sanders said. “How are you on a football field with a baseball bat? Insinuating to Odell Beckham ‘I’m gonna end your career, it’s gonna be over, I’m gonna blow you out, I’m gonna blow your knees out.’ Now they went on to get a person on the practice squad dressed in an all-black sweatsuit, he took the bat, walked over to Odell like he was gonna hit him in his knees, saying, ‘We’re gonna end your career today.’
“Then it got personal, you start talking about his hairstyle, then you start talking about his sexuality.’’
The Panthers do not deny the existence of the bat, saying they have used it often before games as a “Bring the wood’’ sort of symbol. Cornerback Bene’ Benwikere, who was injured and did not play in the game, on Twitter explained that he carried the bat before last week’s game against the Falcons. Norman after that game said the bat symbolizes the secondary wanting to make big plays, like home runs.
A Panthers source told Pro Football Talk the “Giants are trying to distract from Beckham’s antics.’’
The Panthers certainly opened some eyes with their postgame, politically incorrect rip job of Beckham. Norman said, “If you’re gonna come out here and dance around and prance around like you’re a ballerina …,’’ and teammate Cortland Finnegan explained Beckham’s emotions thusly: “Maybe it’s female-related. Maybe it’s in the blood.’’
The Panthers denied anyone on their team made homophobic remarks to Beckham and stated they have used a bat as a motivational prop for quite some time.