Odell Beckham Jr banned for one game after losing appeal
Thursday 24 December 2015 07:19, UK
New York Giants' receiver Odell Beckham Jr will miss Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings after his one-game suspension was upheld following an appeals hearing on Wednesday.
The ruling was made by appeals officer James Thrash, a former NFL player, who was jointly appointed by the NFL and the NFL Players Association to hear appeals of on-field discipline.
Beckham received the ban on Monday for repeated on-field confrontations with Carolina cornerback Josh Norman in a 38-35 home loss to the undefeated Panthers on Sunday.
Beckham, who has 91 catches for 1,396 yards and 13 touchdowns this season, had three unnecessary roughness calls against him, one of them when he raced across the field and appeared to slam his helmet into that of Norman.
NFL vice president of football operations Merton Hanks ruled that Beckham's actions placed his opponents at unnecessary risk of injury and should have been avoided.
"Acts that jeopardise the safety of players or expose them to unnecessary risk cannot be tolerated," Hanks said in his letter to Beckham on Monday.
Norman himself was penalised twice for personal fouls in the game.
"I owe some people an apology," said Beckham in a statement issued by the club after the ruling.
"I wasn't raised to act like I did the other day. I am not here to make excuses for my conduct. This isn't about anything that was said or done to me.
"This is about my behaviour, and I am responsible for my behaviour. People expect better from me, and I expect better from myself."
Beckham apologised to Giants fans and to the team and said he felt a personal responsibility for his "embarrassing" actions.
"A lot of kids look up to me as a role model. That is a responsibility I accept and take seriously," Beckham said. "Many of the parents of those kids have asked since Sunday what they should say to their children about my conduct.
"I don't have the perfect answer, but I think one thing they can say is how I handled myself the other day is an example of how not to conduct yourself. I displayed poor sportsmanship.
"I hope to be an example of somebody who did something wrong and learned from it."
