UPON FURTHER REVIEW: NOPE!
Take the high road on path to stardom
ODELL Beckham Jr. got off easy. He should have been suspended two games. The NFL held up its one-game suspension Wednesday, following Beckham’s appeal. He will miss Sunday night’s game against the Vikings.
In a statement released on Twitter, Beckham admitted, “I dropped the ball on sportsmanship on Sunday.’’ He sure did. Beckham lost his cool and used his helmet as a weapon, launching himself into the ear hole of Josh Norman’s helmet in the third quarter of the 38-35 loss to the Panthers.
In an apology released through the Giants, Beckham showed proper remorse — a great first step.
“I owe some people an apology,’’ Beckham said. “I wasn’t raised to act like I did the other day. I am not here to make excuses for my conduct. This isn’t about anything that was said or done to me. This is about my behavior, and I am responsible for my behavior. People expect better from me, and I expect better from myself.’’
That should be Beckham’s mission statement moving forward.
He added this: “I want to apologize to Giants fans. They want to be proud of us, and proud of players like me who represent their team. What happened the other day was embarrassing to them and embarrassing to me.’’
Most importantly he said, don’t act like I did.
“Many of the parents of those kids have asked since Sunday what they should say to their children about my conduct,” Beckham said. “I don’t have the perfect answer, but I think one thing they can say is how I handled myself the other day is an example of how not to conduct yourself.”
Yes, Norman provoked Beckham, but there is no excuse for what Beckham did and his timing could not have been worse with the movie “Concussion’’ coming out on Christmas Day.
Interesting that there was no apology to Norman. That’s fine.
What Beckham has to do from here on in is not let defensive backs, no matter what they say or what props they may bring out to pregame warmups, get in his head.
He’s one of the greatest receivers I have ever seen and plays with passion. He’s already way ahead of the game. The only way he loses is if he beats himself. Beat the opposing player on the field. Beckham and the Giants need to learn from this and become a better team.
Walking through the halls of the Giants’ practice facility Wednesday, all the signs were in place about this being a place of “Big Blue Warrior Pride’’ and every oney beingg “Team First.’’
But once again, a player put himself before team and it helped the Giants lose another difficult game.
And yes, there was all this talk in the locker room about Beckham learning his lesson.
Let’s hope he does and this is just not an apology to protect the Beckham Brand.
Tom Coughlin doubled down on his guy Wednesday.
“To depict this as Odell Beckham being wrong and the only one wrong is not right,’’ Coughlin preached. “It’s not fair, it’s not justice, it’s not the way it was. If you’re naive enough to think that way then you better do some soulsearching yourself.’’
Beckham is the one who needs to do the soul-searching and in Coughlin’s heart of hearts he has to know that. Keep your head, Odell. Don’t lose it. Punter Brad Wing is a close friend of Beckham’s — they played together at LSU — and Wing was on the field when all the pregame Panthers antics were going on with the baseball bat carried by practice squad player Marcus Ball.
“Everybody knows Odell is such a great player so I’m sure they had plans to maybe get him off his game,’’ Wing said. The plan worked. Beckham dropped a touchdown pass. Beckham will hear more taunts when he returns. Just walk away. Better yet, don’t drop the ball, don’t let anyone throw you off your game, catch the football and race into the end zone for the touchdown.
kevin.kernan@nypost.com