New Video Shows Confrontation Between Odell Beckham Jr. And Bat-Carrying Panthers Player

It’s hard to know what to make of Batghazi—the claims, which were released to various reporters all at the same time, hinting they came from a Giants source, that Panthers players gestured toward Odell Beckham Jr. with baseball bats before the game in which Beckham completely lost his composure. Here’s some more video showing some of what went down.

The Panthers have been bringing a bat out during warmups for a while now. They’ve said, alternately, that it’s a tribute to injured DB Bene Benwikere and it’s meant to symbolize both “bringing the wood” and “hitting a home run.” The videos that have come out so far, both of which can be found in yesterday’s post, show practice squad player Marcus Ball gesturing with the bat toward an unseen Giant as New York takes the field, and Josh Norman carrying the bat during a Panthers-only pregame huddle.

This new video shows Beckham talking and gesturing at Ball, who walks over to the Giants’ side of the field during stretches. Ball has the bat at his side; the two jaw for a couple of seconds; punter Brad Wing steps in between them and Beckham walks away.

Not at any point in the three videos we’ve seen is the bat being used threateningly. What probably matters more, as far as the NFL is concerned, are allegations that either Norman or Ball or both used verbal threats or homophobic slurs against Beckham, as Deion Sanders claimed yesterday on The Rich Eisen Show.

ESPN’s Ian O’Connor also had a Giants source tell him that Panthers players used anti-gay invective toward Beckham before the game.

When the NFL announced Beckham’s one-game suspension, it mentioned that “the conduct of other players in the Panthers-Giants game is being reviewed for potential discipline in the form of fines.”