Odell Beckham Jr. Has Been Prepping Himself For This Sunday's "Mental Warfare" Against Josh Norman

LBS- Odell Beckham Jr. is ready for a battle when he squares off with Josh Norman and the Washington Redskins.

Beckham, who famously engaged in a physical battle with Norman when the corner was still with Carolina last season, is prepared for the Washington secondary to try to get into his head.

“Part of their game plan,” Beckham said, via ESPN’s Jordan Ranaan. “I would do the same. That’s just what you do. It’s mental warfare. It’s the art of war. You know what I mean? There are different ways to attack it.”

​“You ever watch Russell Westbrook play basketball? He plays with a lot of emotion, passion, whatever you want to call it,” Beckham said. “It’s what is best for some players, what is not best for some players. You use it, and you just be smart. Just play smart. It’s football at the end of the day.”



​Mental warfare? Art of war? Is he discussing shit talking or ancient Chinese literature? Credit where credit is due I guess. It's much more honorable to partake in "psychological combat" than it is to throw temper tantrums. Truth is, Odell would have sounded far less badass if he responded to the question by saying "I'm going to restrain myself from acting insecure and kamikaze striking Josh Norman's skull with the crown of my helmet when he inevitably calls me a faggot again". Still, that's all that was REALLY communicated here. Not too difficult to see through the completely unnecessary martial analogies and realize that Mr. Beckham finally understands he needs to keep his cool when Josh Norman uses gay slurs to imply that he might be more of a Ms. Beckham. He can infer that it's a battle of wits all he wants, but all I see is a man trying to tell the world he won't resort to attempting to turn his opponent's mind to mush again. 

Not to mention, he gave himself quite the preemptive "I'll do my best, but..." excuse by repeating the word "war" over and over again. Be tough to blame Odell for lashing out however he sees fit when the opposition's game plan is to use militaristic strategies to get in his head. Can't just let your rival bomb your brain with homophobic conjecture and not return fire. Can you really judge a man for how he chooses to respond when his mental masculinity is being attacked by words of mass destruction. Every action has an equal but opposite reaction, and I'm pretty sure that means Odell could potentially feel justified in giving Josh Norman's decapitation another shot if he refers to him as some variation of the terms "fairy" or "fuck boy".