Odell Beckham's war with Josh Norman leads to one-game suspension

No matter how big of a star New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham is for the NFL, the league could not tolerate what he did on Sunday.

Beckham and Carolina Panthers cornerback Josh Norman fought after the whistle on numerous occasions Sunday, culminating in Beckham's nasty helmet-first hit to Norman's head when Norman wasn't looking. The NFL announced it suspended Beckham for one game. The decision couldn't have been easy for the league, considering the Giants-Minnesota Vikings game this week had been flexed to "Sunday Night Football," and the Giants still have playoff hopes. But Beckham's actions were unacceptable.

Beckham won't go down without a fight (minus the fisticuffs), according to the New York Daily News:

	Ralph Vacchiano @RVacchianoNYDN
Odell Beckham will appeal his suspension, and the appeal could be heard as early as tomorrow. A decision on that will come by end of week. 1:33 PM - 21 Dec 2015

Beckham and Norman engaged in a nasty battle. Numerous times the two were pushing and shoving or worse after the whistle. Beckham got most of the criticism, although Norman was aggressive throughout the game against Beckham too.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the tone of controntation might have been set when some Panthers, including Norman, carried baseball bats on the field during pregame warm-ups, motioning toward Beckham.

Beckham got three unnecessary roughness penalties and Norman got two. It was an ugly display.

The moment that took the feud to another level was when Beckham blindsided Norman with a helmet-to-helmet hit in the second half, taking a run at Norman away from the play. That caused Norman to respond by apparently kneeing Beckham in the head, and both teams scuffled for a few moments. It was surprising that Beckham wasn’t ejected at that point. It was a dirty play.

After the game Norman called on the NFL to take action against Beckham.

“It was malicious in every way,” Norman said. “I hope the league office takes a better look at it. Players like that don’t need to be in the game.”

Assuming Beckham appeals, suspension appeals have worked before. The best example might be then-Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, who was suspended for stepping on Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in Week 17 last year, but his suspension was lifted and he was fined $70,000 instead after appeal. Suh played in that week’s playoff game at the Dallas Cowboys.

Beckham is one of the league’s brightest stars. He was the league’s offensive rookie of the year last year. Beckham has the most receptions by any player in league history through his first two seasons, and is 26 yards from passing Randy Moss’ record for most receiving yards by a player in his first two NFL seasons. Beckham has scored at least once in 10 of New York’s 14 games this season, and has scored in five games in a row.

That's what had to make Sunday so disappointing for the NFL. One of its biggest stars lost his cool and was delivering cheap shots to another player throughout a marquee game (although, again, Norman played a part in the battle as well). It's hard to say a suspension wasn't justified.