Odell Beckham Jr. vs. Josh Norman a topic for another day
Josh Norman of the Carolina Panthers throws Odell Beckham of the New York Giants to the ground at MetLife Stadium on Dec. 20, 2015. Credit: Mike Stobe
We’ll have to wait a little longer to get Ben McAdoo’s latest thoughts on the upcoming game against Washington, which will feature Odell Beckham Jr. and Josh Norman together on the same field for the first time since their matchup turned ugly in December.
“We’ll talk more on the next opponent on Wednesday,” the Giants coach said on Monday.
McAdoo was asked if he will have a discussion with Beckham during the week about controlling his emotions in what is sure to be a highly charged game. He gave the same answer:
“We’ll talk more on the next opponent on Wednesday.”
McAdoo said the Giants had not yet had any talks about the upcoming game in any capacity.
“We’re still on the Saints,” he said. “We’ll move onto Washington later on.”
The conflagration between Beckham and Norman that led to Beckham’s one-game suspension was one of the topics that came up when McAdoo was interviewing for the head coaching job. McAdoo, who had initially said that he liked his players to be “salty” and “walk the line,” backtracked a bit on that sentiment when he was promoted to the big job.
“After what happened on the sideline in the Carolina game, I should’ve been better, and I take full responsibility for that,” he said in January. “Odell feels as bad as anybody about it, and it’s my job to pull him out of that when we go down that road.’’
Co-owner John Mara said the topic was important in his decision-making process while hiring a new head coach.
“[McAdoo] was upset at the way that it transpired, he put a lot of the blame on himself, and he realizes that he should have stepped in and done something,” Mara said in January. “He’ll be the head coach now . . . I think he understands that you can’t let a situation like that linger.”
Beckham, for his part, seemed to be in no rush to bring on the madness that is almost certain to encircle the game and the two players.
“Whenever we get there, we get there,” he said after the 16-13 win over the Saints on Sunday. “We play the Redskins. Looking forward to it, 2-0 going into the division, playing the Redskins, it’s going to be a fun game.”
Beckham seemed more excited about the possibility of taking a big lead on the 0-2 NFC East rival than settling any personal scores.
“It’s a great opportunity to not only go 3-0 but win a division game,” he said. “It would be huge to step into the division with a 2-0 start. This is the most important game. The week after, that will be the most important game. We take it one at a time. This will be the biggest one so far.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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