Carolina Panthers deny Giants’ allegations of taunting aimed at Odell Beckham Jr.

While they close in on potentially just the third perfect regular season in NFL history, the Carolina Panthers faced another round of allegations Wednesday about their purported role in triggering New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr.’s cheap shots and penalties last weekend.

Giants punter Brad Wing says he heard Panthers practice squad safety Marcus Ball threaten Beckham before Sunday’s game, during which Beckham picked up three personal fouls that resulted in a one-game suspension.

Wing was within earshot of Beckham during warmups at MetLife Stadium and said he heard Ball tell Beckham: “I’ll be the reason you don’t play today. ... And other days.”

Wing said he considered it a legitimate threat and noted Ball was carrying a bat, which the Panthers – and other teams – have used as a motivational prop.

Ball suggested he’d been falsely accused.

“If I had a dollar for all the ex-girlfriends who said something about me, (made) allegations, you know what I’m saying?” Ball said Wednesday in the Panthers’ locker room.

Appeals officer James Thrash upheld Beckham’s suspension Wednesday.

Beckham issued an apology via Twitter, saying he’d “dropped the ball on sportsmanship.” He apologized to his teammates, the Giants organization and NFL fans. His apology did not mention the Panthers or Carolina cornerback Josh Norman, who scuffled with Beckham throughout the Panthers’ 38-35 win.

After several media outlets reported Tuesday that Carolina (14-0) provoked Beckham in the pregame by threatening him and using anti-gay slurs, Panthers coach Ron Rivera said he wouldn’t respond to “assumptions and innuendos” and pointed out none of the claims had come from Beckham or anyone with the Giants.

Told about Wing’s comments Wednesday, Rivera said: “That’s one guy. That’s it. I’m not going to go back to it. It’s just one guy who made a statement and we’ve moved on from that.”

The NFL fined Norman a total of $26,044 for his role in the altercations with Beckham, which marred a game the Panthers won with a last-second field goal after blowing a 28-point, third-quarter lead.

Norman was fined $8,681 for grabbing Beckham’s facemask and $17,363 for hitting him in the head or neck area, according to a source. He is expected to appeal.

An uncharacteristically muted Norman on Wednesday said he hadn’t heard about the fines and offered no substantive comments about the situation with Beckham last weekend.

Asked if he or the Panthers directed homophobic slurs toward Beckham, Norman said: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

ESPN’s Josina Anderson reported Beckham’s hearing included no evidence of anti-gay slurs.

Panthers safety Roman Harper said he doesn’t think any Panthers would have used such slurs, and he finds the idea that Beckham was intimidated by a baseball bat laughable.

“I don’t think anybody’s ever been hit by a bat before in a football game ever in my life,” Harper said.

“They can try to spin it or twist and make it seem like we’re the bad guys here when it was clearly – who was the one that was acting out a little bit? For him to be such a great player, you can’t allow that to happen. And he’s going to grow. He’s just young and he did some things that are uncalled for. And I think overall it took away from the game which we play.”

Norman and Beckham tangled from the earliest moments of Sunday’s game, when Norman slammed Beckham to the ground after one of the Giants’ first plays. The Panthers counted a dozen instances in which Beckham was the instigator, the most egregious of which was when Beckham ran 10 yards and launched himself at Norman on a helmet-to-helmet blow.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin said the Panthers provoked Beckham with their actions before the game.

“Beckham certainly was wrong. And we said he was wrong from Day 1. But there were factors involved, starting in pregame, which are well-documented, which indicates there was an attempt to provoke him,” Coughlin told reporters.

“He was out of control. He was wrong. There’s no doubt about it. You’d like that that didn’t happen. But the fact of the matter is, if you know the situation pregame with the baseball bat, and if you know what occurred at the very beginning of the game, you can understand that there are two sides to this and not just one.”

An NFL Films clip shows Rivera apologizing to Coughlin for his players’ behavior when the two coaches met near midfield to shake hands after Sunday’s game. Rivera said he felt obliged to after watching the game get out of hand, regardless of which team or players was responsible.

As for Coughlin’s comments that the Panthers had agitated Beckham, Rivera said he has a lot of respect for the Giants’ longtime coach.

“I’m just moving on from there right now. We’ve sat down and talked about things that we needed to as a coach, players, general manager, all those things,” Rivera said. “Until we hear something different from the league, which is deciding things right now, we’re going to move forward.”

This story was originally published December 23, 2015 at 4:28 PM with the headline "Carolina Panthers deny Giants’ allegations of taunting aimed at Odell Beckham Jr.."