From Odell Beckham Junior’s scuffle with Josh Norman to the Panthers’ bat on the sidelines, yesterday’s game produced a lot of commentary.
At the start of the season, many would’ve thought that the Panthers vs Giants game would’ve been an easy Giants win. Boy, were we wrong. The Panthers have been on fire all season and week after week, they produced such exciting games. When the Giants faced off against the Panthers on December 20, there were a lot of issues on the field. Odell Beckham Junior was given a one-game suspension for his scuffle with Panthers’ Josh Norman. But, an unlikely character was brought up: the bat on the Panthers’ sidelines.
Panthers cornerback Bene Benwirke took it to Twitter to defend the bat and explained why it’s on the field.
Come on now my boys carry the bat with them as it symbolizes my presence still being with them at the game and the NFL has a problem???
— Bené Benwikere (@Benwik21) December 21, 2015
I carried the bat out the tunnel against Atlanta and my teammates held it during warm ups that game to pic.twitter.com/SQTcIy8mrF
— Bené Benwikere (@Benwik21) December 21, 2015
With this tweet, you can tell that there’s no bad blood.
And on top of that I believe Odell is an awesome player met him a few times but during the game in between the lines there was no bat
— Bené Benwikere (@Benwik21) December 21, 2015
Coaches and players in every sport use objects as symbols of motivation the bat is a symbol pic.twitter.com/kPGvaHQuHK
— Bené Benwikere (@Benwik21) December 21, 2015
It seems like the bat is their second mascot. The players see this bat as a symbol and if it is truly bringing them comfort, then carry on.