Bills players say Odell Beckham Jr. threw punches, is 'prima donna'

ByMike Rodak ESPN logo
Wednesday, October 7, 2015

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Several Buffalo Bills players accused star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. of throwing punches after plays late in the New York Giants' 24-10 win in Buffalo.



Linebacker Preston Brown, who was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct late in the fourth quarter for scuffling with Giants players following an Eli Manning fumble, told The Buffalo News on Tuesday that Beckham struck him when Brown was trying to defend teammate Nigel Bradham.



"That's what he does. He'll get away with it," Brown told the newspaper. "He's the 'golden boy' of the league. He's on the cover of Madden. Sometimes, you get away with stuff like that."



Three plays later, with less than four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, television cameras show Beckham throwing a punch at the helmet of Bills safety Duke Williams while cornerback Stephon Gilmore was returning an interception.



"He's different," Gilmore told The Buffalo News. "It's kind of like you're playing your little brother and he gets mad at you for being too physical with him -- throwing a tantrum. I'm like, 'Man, we're playing football. It's a physical game.'



"He's a prima donna. He feels like he's on top of the world and nobody's supposed to do anything to him."



After the game, Gilmore told reporters of Beckham, who finished with five catches for 38 yards: "He's all right. He's going to make his plays sometimes, but I think we held him down."



Beckham was not penalized on the play. He could face a fine for the swing, although the NFL will not disclose fine information from last Sunday's games until Friday.



"I just put my hands up like, 'You're not going to call the foul?" Williams told The Buffalo News. "He didn't call anything."



The Bills were called for 17 accepted penalties in the game and lead the NFL with 58 total penalties [accepted and declined] through four games, putting them on pace to break the NFL's record for most penalties in a season.



Giants offensive lineman Justin Pugh called the Giants' final offensive possession "mayhem" because of fighting after the whistle.



"On that last drive, their defense was kind of like -- when they were getting penalties -- they were like, 'This game is over anyway,'" Pugh said after the game, according to Syracuse.com. "That is kind of how it was. It was kind of crazy out there on that last drive. Mayhem. Refs yelling at players, players yelling at refs. I was just sitting back and trying not to get fined $15,000 for something."



Before the game, Giants coach Tom Coughlin spoke to his team about Buffalo's propensity for committing penalties. Giants players said Coughlin told them, "Let's make sure they're the team that's the most penalized in this game, not us."



Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams believed Giants players were trying to bait Bills players into penalties.



"I think the bad thing is that the reputation is out," Williams said of the Bills' propensity for penalties. "There's different things, whether it be from the other team knowing -- so they can goad you into a couple things, and you have to be able to move away from that -- and the officials are looking for certain things. So we have to be choirboys."



ESPN.com's Dan Graziano contributed to this report.



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