Seven months after their mid-game melee, Odell Beckham Jr. is still taking shots at Josh Norman
Seven months after Odell Beckham Jr. and Josh Norman's infamous Week 15 fracas, Beckham is still taking shots at the former Carolina and current Redskins cornerback.
"The reason that he's become so relevant is because of me," Beckham said of Norman in a GQ feature published this week.
In case you've forgotten, Beckham and Norman went at it during the third quarter of a December game, reportedly in part because of homophobic slurs and threatening baseball bats directed at Beckham from the Panthers' bench during pre-game warm-ups.
Beckham landed a dangerous helmet-to-helmet blow on Norman away from the play, which should have resulted in an ejection, and Norman responded with an ugly hit of his own.
Ultimately both players were fined, and Beckham received a one-game suspension.
Like most NFL controversies (Deflategate notwithstanding), Beckham vs. Norman dominated the headlines for a short but ultimately went away pretty quickly. The season went on, new drama took its place.
After the season ended, Norman left the Panthers on somewhat bad terms, and wound up signing with the Washington Redskins. That, of course, means he and Beckham will face off twice a year for the foreseeable future.
As Beckham understands it, Norman's decision to sign in Washington was a Beckham-related business move. And a smart one at that.
"It goes back to what I was saying. If I wasn't playing him twice a year, maybe people wouldn't bring it up so much," Beckham told GQ. "But now it'll be a lot more media attention for him, attention that I don't really look for, attention that I don't need. "The reason that he's become so relevant is because of me."
"I'm sure," he says.
Really? He came [to D.C.] for you?
"Yeah. For sure. I mean, it's a smart business move for him."
It's not hard to imagine that Beckham was, on some small level, a factor in Norman's decision. But more than anything else, hearing Beckham's rationale about this makes it seem like he's not quite over what happened in December. Which is great news for football fans. The Giants and Redskins meet in Week 3.