New York Giants

Time will tell whether memory of OBJ-Norman feud will fade

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Time heals wounds. There is plenty of hatred reported by the know-it-alls that makes it an almost sure bet that New York Giants one-handed catching Odell Beckham Jr. and Josh Norman will be trouble for both Jay Gruden and Ben McAdoo.

The truth is somewhere in between.

It is okay to make a prediction of how two rivals of two rival organizations will get along. This is the purpose of covering sports.

The problem is blowing an issue out of proportion to distort reality.

That is just what has happened when on September 22 The New York Daily News reported that Odell Beckham Jr. and Josh Norman will create an escalation that will lead to penalty after penalty from both sides.

“I don’t shy away from nobody.” Josh Norman is coming for Odell Beckham Jr., & the #Giants know how to handle him https://t.co/vmotNauuFv

— Pat Leonard (@PLeonardNYDN) September 22, 2016

Looking at the numbers

If you take a closer look at OB’s character from the last two games, he appears to have matured. Juding by statistics alone of 159 yards when Manning threw the ball to him 19 times.

It has been roughly a year since the last time these two players were within arms length of each other. A year ago, Coughlin was the head coach. It is sometimes hard to remember that fact. It is unlikely that a shoving match between two players can go on this long.

It would be been a better decision to just say that Beckham and Norman have not gone along well and may cause a distraction in between plays as long as the New York media continues to pepper them with questions a-la a boxing pre-fight interview.

Both Beckham and Norman are now veterans in their own right capable of making their own decisions. Don’t expect them to give way to their instincts. They have had time to think about what they did wrong.