Am I Supposed To Care That The Panthers Brought Bats On The Field And Called Odell Beckham Jr. Gay?

ELI greets his teammates as they take the field! #CARvsNYG □

A video posted by New York Giants (@nygiants) on Dec 20, 2015 at 9:14am PST

Video: One of reasons sources say OBJ went ballistic was threat from Panthers player in street clothes with a baseball bat on field. Player then gave bat to Josh Norman.

A video posted by @jayglazer on Dec 21, 2015 at 11:39am PST

Source w/ Giants tells @Ian_OConnor that NYG heard Panthers defensive players directing expletives & anti-gay slurs at Beckham before game.

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 21, 2015

Umm, and? Is that Odell Beckham's best attempt at an appeal? Is that all he's got? Maybe he should just sit down, shut the fuck up, and serve his one game suspension for trying to behead his opponent while he wasn't looking. If that's his only excuse then it's a pretty lame one. Hell, even if it's only an explanation that sounds like an excuse it's still a pretty lame one.  It's as simple as this, if you don't want people to make fun of the blonde Chia pet growing in the middle of your head than don't have an asshole haircut. If you don't want people to insinuate you like dudes then don't get caught staring at your teammates ass on the football field. There's nothing wrong with being homosexual, but getting mad because someone called you gay is the most middle school reason to lose your temper of all time. Let's put it this way, it might not be right (or politically correct for that matter) for the Carolina Panthers to be calling Odell Beckham Jr. a "faggot", but he's far from the first person to be called a "faggot" on a football field. Unless he happens to share in the same sexuality as Michael Sam then some gay jokes are pretty harmless.

Oh wait, I almost forgot the Panthers threatened him with baseball bats. I might have to take Odell Beckham's side after all. Where did all of this go down? In a rat invested back alley in New York City? In an abandoned warehouse? Outside of Eminem's trailer in '8 Mile'? No? It was just on a football field in front of hundreds of cameras broadcasting to a nationwide audience. Oh okay, nice try guys. If you feel threatened by someone carrying a baseball bat when it's blatantly obvious they have no intention of using it for anything other than getting under your skin then that's on you. Did the Panthers use the most praiseworthy of antics to get in the head of Odell Beckham? Of course not, but there's a reason it's called "trash" talk, and it's not because it exonerates you from blame when you play dirty.

At the end of the day there is no legitimate excuse for what Odell Beckham did. It wasn't just a freak incident that happened in the heat of the moment, and even if it was it certainly didn't come across as such given how he had acted prior to that play. He selfishly took personal foul penalties all afternoon, and that was just the culmination of his frustrations. You can say his Head Coach should have sat him down. You can say the referees should have done a better job officiating the full blown wrestling match that was taking place throughout the entire game. However, at the end of the day, you are responsible for your own actions, and Beckham's actions warranted a one game suspension. With the emphasis the NFL is putting on head injuries the last thing they can afford to let go unpunished is a disgruntled wide receiver launching his helmet into the head of a defenseless cornerback after the play. The fact that Odell Beckham is a mental midget that can't tell the difference between off the field gamesmanship and on the field play isn't a justification, no matter how much he means to the Giants dwindling playoff chances.