When cornerback Josh Norman signed with the Redskins earlier this offseason, plenty of people noted that he would be scheduled to face the Giants and wide receiver Odell Beckham twice during the regular season.
Beckham and Norman had a memorable battle during last year’s Giants-Panthers game that featured taunting, pushing, shoving and a running blow to Norman’s head from Beckham that led to a one-game suspension for the Giants wideout. The ugliness between the players also led to several flags during the game and influenced the league’s push to eject players with two unsportsmanlike penalties in the same game.
Beckham passed on commenting on Norman’s arrival in the NFC East when Norman signed, but the season is getting closer and he’s ramping things up on the verbal front. In an interview for the August 2016 edition of GQ, Beckham shared his opinion that Norman signing with the Redskins is “for sure” about his presence in the division.
“It goes back to what I was saying,” Beckham said. “If I wasn’t playing him twice a year, maybe people wouldn’t bring it up as much. But now it’ll be a lot more media attention for him, attention that I don’t really look for, attention that I don’t need. The reason he’s become so relevant is because of me.”
Beckham also discussed living in Drake’s house and rumors of a romantic fling with Khloe Kardashian while modeling clothes for the magazine, so it seems he’s doing just fine in the attention department.
Norman was well on his way to earning a big contract this offseason before he and Beckham went WWE on each other during last year’s game, but such trifles rarely get in the way of a good round of trash talking. There’s a good chance we’ll see some more before the players renew acquaintances on September 25.