Josh Norman likes Odell Beckham Jr., the Carolina Panthers cornerback opening up on his much publicized feud with the New York Giants wide receiver late last season in a game he now admits he asked to be taken out from.

Plenty has been made between the war of words that turned physical between Beckham and Norman, an ugly series of incidents where neither player came out looking like the bigger man. But on ESPN’s First Take on Thursday, Norman opened up about the altercations in a confusing series of answers to questions lobbed at him from the show’s hosts.

Interestingly, he admitted to asking head coach Ron Rivera to come out from the game.

“Because I know, I know me,” Norman said. “I really would have gotten into a physical altercation out there, that’s my mindset.”

He was left in, he says, because Rivera wanted him to learn from the experience.

Norman said that his “blood was boiling” on the first play of the game but dodged a question about what set him into that mindset. Then he pivoted as moments later Norman said “there was no beef” with Beckham. He also called the Giants wide receiver “a cool dude, I’ve got nothing against the man.” Mixed messages from Norman to say the least.

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He also said that he is now “embedded” in Beckham’s head.

A lot has been made about what caused the tensions to reach such a height between the two players, with certain accounts saying that the Panthers carried baseball bats on the field, threatened Beckham and hurled slurs at him.

Specifics were not given by Norman on what might have led to all of this as he vaguely deflected on the topic.

“There was a lot of stuff going on,” Nelson said.

“I don’t know, I been hearing about the whole bat thing but the bat thing, I don’t think it played a role in the whole transpired in what took place. We had the bat the last week [before the Giants game], the team didn’t say anything about that.

“It is what we do, we swing for the fences, we make big plays.”

With regards to being called by First Take host Skip Bayless “the most effective trashtalker” in the NFL, Norman pointed out that mudslinging isn’t part of his game.

“It’s not to be honest with you, it really isn’t,” Norman said. “It’s kind of however you want, whatever day you want, we go there.”