The NFL put in a rule this season calling for a player to be ejected if he receives two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the same game and many felt that the way things got out of hand between Josh Norman and Odell Beckham last season had a lot to do with the change.
Beckham and Norman have avoided that kind of messiness during this Sunday’s game between the Redskins and Giants, but one of Beckham’s teammates has become the first victim of the new rule. Center Weston Richburg has been ejected in the fourth quarter after a second unsportsmanlike penalty.
Richburg was penalized for hitting Norman at the end of a solid catch and run by Beckham and a couple of plays after Norman was penalized for unnecessary roughness for hitting Sterling Shepard high when Shepard was a defenseless player. Richburg’s penalty cost his team 15 yards and killed momentum that had them in the red zone on a drive that ended with no points when Eli Manning was picked by Quinton Dunbar. Dunbar made a great one-handed catch, continuing an eventful day for the defensive back.
FOX cameras caught an upset Beckham stalking the sideline, getting hit in the head by a kicking net after kicking it and (it seemed on TV) tearing up before Manning went to calm him down, something that didn’t happen in last year’s game and something the Giants need so Beckham remains in the game as they try to come back from 26-24 down in the final 12 minutes.