BECKHAM DOESN’T REGRET BASHING TEAM
Giants star receiver caused stir with ESPN interview that aired before Sunday’s game
Odell Beckham Jr., team player? Yeah, right.
That’s what he’d like us all to believe after he went behind the New York Giants’ back Oct. 2 to do a clandestine interview with ESPN, which aired Sunday morning. In it, the talented wide receiver threw just about everyone on the team under the bus, in a manner seldom seen in-season, especially by a player who just six months earlier was rewarded by that team with a contract extension worth nearly US$100 million.
Ah, life in the 2010s. So many hard-done-by people.
From head coach Pat Shurmur and the new offensive coaching staff, to teammates, especially quarterback Eli Manning, Beckham blasted the Giants, in hurtful, gashing ways he probably doesn’t understand, otherwise he presumably wouldn’t have said them publicly.
Or maybe he said them because he wants to be traded. Regardless, here’s just some of what the fifth-year receiver said: On whether Manning is the right quarterback for the Giants: “I feel like he’s not going to get out (of ) the pocket. He’s not. We know Eli’s not running it. But is it a matter-of-time issue? Can he still throw it? Yeah, but it’s been pretty safe (throws) … I want to go over the top of somebody.” On his frustration with defences scheming against New York with two deep safeties game after game, year after year since 2014 (at least that’s the gospel according to OBJ): “That’s how they play me. And there’s no (one) to say, ‘How do we beat this?’ I feel like I’m being outschemed and I also don’t have a chance to, like, do something.”
On whether he’s happy in New York, despite just agreeing in April to a five-year, $90-million contract extension: “That’s a tough question.”
Reports said Shurmur was livid upon learning what Beckham said. Although Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer reported Shurmur made Beckham apologize to his teammates before Sunday’s 33-31 loss at Carolina, both men denied it after the game.
Here’s what the Giants’ firstyear head coach said in his postgame news conference:
“All right, listen. I’m going to answer all the drama questions right now … I addressed it with Odell. I addressed it with our team. I publicly declared I didn’t agree with his comments and I asked anybody that was interested if they wanted clarification (to) go to Odell because he’s a big man.
“Now, I’m not going to give the public a pound of flesh on this, all right? That would make me small, not strong. And these are the kind of things, in my opinion, when we have the locker-room that we have, that will help galvanize them because the lockerroom took care of it. And that is all I’m saying on it. Finito. Done. Let’s talk football, not drama.” Beckham, who led all receivers Sunday with eight catches for 131 yards and a touchdown catch, while also throwing a touchdown pass, was asked after the game if he regretted doing the ESPN interview and saying all those hurtful things. Uh, no. He was proud of it. “I don’t regret anything that I said. If it took that for us to come together as a team like we did today, I can take that every single time. I spoke to the team just to kind of relay the message that sometimes stuff comes off the wrong way. Words can be portrayed in any kind of light.” Mmm-hmm. Beckham thinks he healed, not harmed, the locker-room. Incredible.
If I ran the Giants, I’d be trading him. ASAP. Beckham isn’t going to become a better lockerroom presence as time goes on.
SUPER BOWL HANGOVER
What’s wrong with the defending Super Bowl champions? Lots. The Philadelphia Eagles aren’t the first reigning champs to have that asked about them early in the following season.
The Eagles are 2-3. They struggle to move the ball and struggle to stop others from doing so. Basically, everything ’s to blame. Don’t put it all at the doorstep of Carson Wentz, who in his third start since returning from reconstructive knee surgery couldn’t do a whole lot in a 23-21 homefield loss to Minnesota Sunday. His coaches chose not to run it much and he was poorly protected again by an Eagles offensive line that isn’t playing nearly as well as last year.
“I love to run the football,” said head coach and offensive strategist Doug Pederson, whose top rusher Jay Ajayi was placed on injured reserve Monday with a reportedly season-ending ACL tear. “We can’t get behind in football games because then sometimes the running game won’t allow you to get back fast enough. “We’ve got to figure out how to start games faster, stay on the field longer and generate points early in football games.”
If it took that for us to come together as a team like we did today, I can take that every single time.