I heard Deions interview, they claim that a practice squad player in black approached Beckham with a bat, during pregame and said they were going to end his career take out his legs etc. While it doesn’t begin to excuse Beckham’s behavior, the NFL should want to know if things like this are happening - and the NFL should be taking meaningful steps to eradicate it from the game. Given the number of cameras and microphones present on and around a football field before, during, and after a game, the NFL should fully investigate whether and to what extent slurs were directed to Beckham. If guys like Finnegan and Norman are willing to offer up such thinly-veiled assessments of femininity and sexuality when talking publicly about Beckham, would it be a shock to learn they used anti-gay slurs toward Beckham when they thought their words weren’t being recorded? I pulled back the face of what that dude really is.” “You’re going to be Michael Jackson and go around and dancing and playing and a lot of other stuff and not be a football player and not train the way you’re supposed to train,” Norman said. Maybe it’s female-related.” Likewise, Norman called Beckham a “bitch” and a “ ballerina.” Said Panthers cornerback Cortland Finnegan, via Black & Blue Review: “Maybe it’s in his blood. So now when you’re talking about things like that of that nature, it goes way off the field into something because now this is personal.”įlashes of homophobia emerged after the game. “Then you start talking about his sexuality. “Then you start talking about his hairstyle,” Sanders said. Smith of SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio, Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders corroborated the notion that Panthers players hurled personal insults at Beckham. Ian O’Connor of reported on Monday that Giants players “heard Panthers defensive players direct anti-gay slurs and expletives at Beckham before the game,” which is believed to have set the confrontational tone of the game. Another potential explanation that emerged on Monday is far more serious. The notion that Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who went after Panthers cornerback Josh Norman repeatedly on Sunday, was provoked by the presence of a baseball bat on the field before the game is laughable.