Giants - Panthers Referees Somehow Didn't Think Odell Beckham Deserved Ejection

BOSTON (CBS) -- The saga of Odell Beckham's stunning fall from grace (if I could engage in a bit of hyperbole for a second) remains the most talked-about storyline in the NFL during Week 16. The discussions and scalding hot takes will likely rage on through Sunday as the NFL upheld Beckham's one-game suspension that will keep him out of the Giants' game this weekend versus the Minnesota Vikings - during fantasy football championship week. Fantasy owners may or may not be lining up at bridges across the country.

Beckham certainly deserved the suspension for running backwards over 20 yards to deliver an egregiously uncalled-for helmet-to-helmet hit on the Panthers' Josh Norman, as guilty as Carolina may have been in provoking him. But he also deserved an ejection from the game right then and there. The helmet hit was the culmination of a game filled with general jackassery from both Beckham and Norman.

But as you know by now, Beckham was allowed to stay in the game after the hit and even scored the game-tying touchdown. And the referees who watched Beckham's increasingly violent antics somehow didn't believe he needed to be tossed.

NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino told the NFL Network Tuesday that he felt the need to remind the referees during the game that they were allowed to eject players if they felt it was warranted - as if the officials didn't even know they could do it. I wanted that to be the case so bad because that would be too funny, but it was more like telling a pushover "You know, you can say 'no' sometimes."

Still, this sounds like Terry McAulay's crew was afraid to make such a big decision and needed Blandino's permission to do so.

"The crew was doing a really tough job of trying to keep the game under control," said Blandino. "They had spoken to both head coaches. They had spoken to the players. There was a point during the game when I did get on the headset to the replay official to remind the referee that, 'You can eject players. You'll have our full support. This thing cannot get out of control.'"

The thing got out of control once Beckham's helmet smashed into Norman's. Blandino added that the referees would have agreed with him after reviewing the game film that Beckham deserved to be thrown out.

Oh yeah, there was a lot of this too:

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After all the buildup and chippiness going on during the game, that should have been the proverbial last straw for both players. Norman didn't exactly play a clean game either, but if you had to choose one player to eject it would have been Beckham. Maybe McAulay was afraid to piss off fantasy owners - or maybe he had OBJ on his own team, who knows?

So not only have NFL officials been incompetent across the league this season, they're apparently also afraid to assert themselves when it comes to major decisions like ejecting a star player from a big game. They will need to be less timid when the playoffs start in a few weeks.

Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read more from Matt here. Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.

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