WING SINGS Big Blue punter says he heard Beckham threat
Punter Brad Wing is not only the closest friend Odell Beckham Jr. has on the Giants — they played together at LSU — but he was also the closest player to Beckham during the notorious pregame scrum that played a role in the mayhem that followed during Sunday’s GiantsPanthers game.
Beckham and cornerback Josh Norman engaged in repeated physical altercations during the game, after which Beckham was hit with a onegame suspension and Norman with fines totaling $26,044.
Wing said Wednesday he observed a Panthers player not in uniform go up to Beckham holding a baseball bat and threatening him verbally, at one point saying, “I’ll be the reason this will be your last game.’’ That player later was identified as practicesquad safety Marcus Ball.
“There was a guy dressed in warmup clothes, not in football gear, and he was kind of looking at Odell,’’ Wing said. “Odell was still dancing around, went to shake his hand. The guy just kind of looked at his hand, and he didn’t go to shake his hand.
“I looked back and noticed he was coming over towards where we were at on our side of the field. He got to about the 40, 35yard line. They were just yelling at each other. Odell was, ‘ Why you not playing?’ Kind of just back and forth, and that guy was like, ‘I’ll be the reason you don’t play today and other days.’
“After that, it got kind of bro ken up. That’s when I stepped in the middle of them because they were getting pretty close. Then, the ref came in and kind of sent him away, he went back to his side of the field, and we just went on about our pregame.’’ Ball was having none of it. “If I had a dollar for all the exgirlfriends that had false allegations about me …,’’ he told reporters in Carolina.
Did Wing sense this was a legitimate threat?
“I mean, he had a baseball bat,’’ Wing said. “He never swung it at Odell or anything like that, but it was there. It was present. He had a baseball bat. We’re on a football f ield. He had a baseball bat. It was a legitimate threat. The guy was in an area he was not supposed to be, obviously.’’
Asked how Beckham reacted, Wing said: “Yeah, I think ‘shaken him up’ is an accurate way to put it.’’
There also were reports of homophobic slurs directed at Beckham, but Wing said he did not hear any of that.
“I can’t remember, to be honest with you,’’ Wing said.
An opposing player crossing the 50yard line is rare, something Wing said he never has seen in his three years in the NFL. As Ball and Beckham were jawing, Wing said a game official came over to break it up. Wing then watched as Ball went over to the Carolina side of the field.
“All I saw was as soon as the little commotion between Odell and this man broke up, I kind of still watched him as he went back to his side of the field, and he went straight to Josh Norman, and they had a little conversation,” Wing said. “I don’t know what they were talking about.’’
Wing is convinced the officials could have controlled the situation if they had thrown penalty flags earlier in the game.
“I think it had a lot to do with — I think it was the fourth or fifth play [Beckham] got body slammed. He retreated. He had his hands in the air, which is a universal sign of retreat,’’ Wing said. “Josh then body slammed him, and there was no flags or no help or no intervention by any official. That kind of let Odell know what kind of day it was going to be, and if anyone was to stick up for Odell, it had to be himself.’’