The Carolina Panthers' bats are being put away for winter.
Amid allegations that Panthers players brandished bats, which had been used all season as motivational props, and used anti-gay slurs toward New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. prior to their Week 15 matchup, Panthers head coach Ron Rivera says he's ending the bat program.
Even though he felt there was nothing wrong with it after talking to his team to find out what happened prior to the explosive matchup between Beckham and Panthers corner Josh Norman, Rivera said he would put an end to it preemptively.
“I’m going to end up hearing [about] it. So to avoid the situation and set of circumstances, let’s just eliminate it. That’s what we’re going to do,” Rivera said, via the Charlotte Observer. “It’s the No Fun League for a reason.”
Beckham reportedly felt intimidated by the Panthers’ pregame actions. Panthers practice squad safety Marcus Ball reportedly jawed with Beckham while wielding a bat before the game. Rivera said the bat controversy was "non-troversy" — it was a motivational tool, he said, used by the Panthers and by other teams.
Rivera said he'd act accordingly if other serious allegations surfaced. For now, he seemed annoyed at the distraction of it all.
“I’m a little disappointed in it to be quite honest because a lot of it has been assumptions and innuendos. We’ve not heard from Odell. He hasn’t released a statement. Their organization hasn’t released a statement. But I keep hearing all these things that everybody else is saying,” Rivera said.
“So that disappoints me because if there’s something out there that’s factual, there’s truth, there’s hard evidence, please present it to us as well so we can react accordingly. We don’t tolerate that here.”
Beckham was suspended for Sunday's Week 16 game against the Minnesota Vikings, pending an appeal. The league is reviewing other potential discipline from the game — including with Norman — in the form of fines.
Rivera also said he has seen no evidence, from Ball or any other Panthers player, that slurs were used.
“Marcus has given me no reason not to believe what he told me. I heard nothing. Several of the people around him heard nothing to be construed as something homophobic,” Rivera said. “Having said that, unless there’s an audio or something out there to show me ..."
On top of that, Rivera wondered what many of us in the media speculated: that the allegations coming from the Giants or from Beckham's camp was an attempt at "spin control" or a way of justifying his actions, which included three unnecessary roughness calls in the game that led to the suspension.
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