Following Sunday’s Norman-Beckham fiasco, sources surrounding the team reported that Beckham was incredulous over pre-game threats being made by Panthers players waving a bat towards him and using homophobic slurs during the contest.
Cowboys legend, NFL Network analyst and current mentor for Beckham Jr., Michael Irvin corroborated the reports in an interview with NY Daily News writer Gary Myers.
He deals with it a lot. For some reason, everybody goes after him with gay slurs. Hes a different kind of dude. He has the hairdo out, hes not the big muscular kind of dude. The ladies all love him. Hes a star. I wonder why people are going in that direction. It blows my mind. I told him he cant let stuff that people say get to you, Irvin said.
I dont think Ive ever really seen the animosity towards a receiver ever in the league right now whats going towards this young kid, Irvin said.
Trash-talk during games is great for competition, but homophobic slurs cross way over the line of competitive banter. Beckham Jr. issued an apology today for his lack of sportsmanship via twitter, and hopefully he will learn from his mistakes on Sunday. Teams will assuredly attack the young receiver the same way the Panthers did last week, trying to win the mental game. He must channel that rage into making plays on the field to hurt the opposing team.
