EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Odell Beckham Jr. spent about 90 minutes Wednesday inside the NFL’s Manhattan offices trying to get his one-game suspension for unsportsmanlike and dangerous play overturned. But several hours later, the league announced that James Thrash, the
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Odell Beckham Jr. spent about 90 minutes Wednesday inside the NFL’s Manhattan offices trying to get his one-game suspension for unsportsmanlike and dangerous play overturned. But several hours later, the league announced that James Thrash, the appeals officer and former NFL receiver, had upheld the suspension imposed by the league.
If the New York Giants’ playoff hopes are still alive when they take the field Sunday night in Minnesota, they will have to upset the Vikings without their most explosive player.
Beckham issued a statement on his Twitter account minutes after the league announced the result of the appeal hearing.
“I apologize for my actions on Sunday,” Beckham wrote. “I work hard to be great and accepting the Blessing of having the physical skills to play at this level brings the responsibility to conduct myself in a certain way on and off the field.
“Sportsmanship and respecting the game are as important as blocking, running routes and catching the football. I dropped the ball on sportsmanship on Sunday. I apologize to my teammates, the Giants organization and to all fans of the NFL.”
The NFL suspended Beckham on Monday for reckless play in Sunday’s game with the Carolina Panthers. Beckham repeatedly tangled with cornerback Josh Norman and was whistled for three personal fouls for unnecessary roughness. But the most glaring incident came in the third quarter, when Beckham, running at full speed, slammed his helmet into the side of Norman’s.
On Wednesday, the league did not elaborate on its reasons for the punishment. Earlier in the day, Josh Norman was fined about $26,000 for his role in the clash.
In announcing the suspension Monday, the league referred to Beckham’s vicious collision with Norman as a flagrant hit against a defenseless player, “in which Beckham left his feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into his opponent.”
It was the fourth fine or suspension for Beckham in his two decorated seasons with the Giants. Beckham will forfeit $52,529, or one-seventeenth of his 2015 salary of $893,009, and he will not be permitted to be around the team for any practices or functions until Dec. 28.
After practice Wednesday, punter Brad Wing said he saw Panthers practice squad player Marcus Ball, who was holding a black baseball bat, walk at least 10 yards into the Giants half of the field during warmups and tell Beckham: “I’ll be the reason why you’re not playing today — and other games.”
Wing said he had never before seen an opposing player cross over into his team’s end of the field and said Ball was targeting Beckham with a “legitimate threat.” After Sunday’s game, Wing, who played college football with Beckham at Louisiana State, believed that the episode “may have had an impact on how Odell was acting.”
But Wing, and other Giants in the vicinity of the incident Wing described, said they did not hear any Panthers player direct homophobic slurs at Beckham, something that had been reported on Tuesday. Wing, who is close to Beckham, did later say that Beckham has indicated that he has been subjected to homophobic taunts during other parts of the season.
Meanwhile, before practice Wednesday, Giants coach Tom Coughlin offered a defiant, strident and passionate defense of Beckham, insisting the Panthers were also to blame for Sunday’s out-of-bounds behavior.
“To depict this as Odell Beckham being wrong, and the only one wrong, is not right — it’s not fair, it’s not justice and it’s not the way it was,” Coughlin said. “If you’re naive enough to think that way, then you better do some soul-searching yourself. Beckham certainly was wrong, and we said he was wrong from day one. But there were factors involved, starting in pregame, which are well-documented, which indicate that there was an attempt to provoke him. He was provoked.”
Coughlin continued: “If you know the situation in pregame with the baseball bat and if you know what occurred at the very beginning of the game, you can understand that there was two sides to this and not just one.”
The Panthers had previously used bats for pregame motivation. The bats are said to be symbolic of home runs, or “taking the wood” to an opponent. But Carolina coach Ron Rivera on Tuesday denied that Beckham had been threatened and Ball refuted the charge Wednesday. Rivera has also announced that he was going to forbid his team from bringing baseball bats on the field for the rest of the season.
Coughlin said Wednesday he had spoken with Beckham this week before the suspension was announced.
“He felt bad,” Coughlin said of Beckham. “That’s probably the best way I can say it. He felt bad.”
Coughlin also said the Giants had reached out to the league office to tell their side of the story concerning the nearly gamelong clash between Beckham and Norman.
