The Panthers will no longer be carrying a baseball bat out of the tunnel with them before games.
On Tuesday, Carolina head coach Ron Rivera told reporters that he did not hear any of his players threatening Odell Beckham Jr. or taunting the Giants receiver with homophobic slurs. Despite that, Rivera said the baseball bat tradition will end so he doesn’t have to deal with a headache from the league.
Ron Rivera on why end bat thing if he doesn't have problem with it: "Because I'll hear (about) it. … It's the No Fun League for a reason."
— Joe Person (@josephperson) December 22, 2015
Rivera was adamant that he did not hear any member of his team doing anything wrong, despite reports that Beckham was threatened with the bat. He noted that the Giants have not released an official statement indicating otherwise and referred to the allegations as “spin control.”
Ron Rivera has seen clips from pre-game at NYG, says they're ambiguous. Says if there's video/audio that implicates his players, present it.
— Joe Person (@josephperson) December 22, 2015
Ron Rivera says he wonders whether bat/slurs controversy is "someone's attempt at spin control."
— Joe Person (@josephperson) December 22, 2015
There is video evidence of Beckham arguing with Panthers practice squad player Marcus Ball while Ball was holding the bat, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he threatened Beckham with it. We don’t doubt that the Panthers taunted Beckham, but that type of stuff happens every game. None of that excuses all the cheap shots Beckham threw (videos here) that earned him a one-game suspension.
