TAKE IT WEEZY
Lil Wayne has message for N. Orleans homie Eli: Don’t doobie like that
When Eli Manning goes low, Lil Wayne goes higher. And, uh, higher. A day after the Giants quarterback spoke about the rapper for perhaps the first time in his life, a bothe red Lil Wayne— aka Weezy — enormous blunt in hand, released a series of Ins tag ram videos in which he was incredulous he was on the receiving end of a shot from one of his favorite quarterbacks. The background: In the wake of Lil Wayne being a side character in ESPN’s interview with Odell Beckham Jr., Manning was asked about Beckham not offering his full support for the 37-yearold QB. “I don’t watch Lil Wayne much, so I missed a lot of him,” came Manning ’s response. Oh, but Lil Wayne has seen plenty of Manning, believing the two New Orleans natives were distant buddies until he caught a whiff of Manning’s blunt take.
“Every time I’m doing an interview about you and somebody is about to … even when I’m in the crib and amongst the homies, every time someone says something bad about you, I be the first one to[ defend you ],” the mega-rich and -famous rapper said, addressing Manning. “You can ask Skip Bayless, that’s my homie, shoutout Skip — you can ask Skip Bayless. First thing I’m going to say is man, listen. I got an uncle that was doing time that remembers seeing Eli, Archie, Peyton, Cooper, he remembers seeing them at 5 in the morning, every other morning on the schoolyard, way before the students get there, practicing. I’m the first to one to back you up. Like man, he got two rings before his brother.”
Yet Manning wasn’t there in Lil Wayne’s hour of need.
“And here you’re talking about you don’t watch Lil Wayne much,” he said. “That’s fine. That’s fine. I’m cool with you. I don’t care what you watch, what you listen to, nothing like that. But come on, man, the hometown love — why you gotta do me like that, man? I didn’t say anything bad about you, man. So I’m not going to say anything bad about you now.”
As the Giants opened up practice Tuesday, the f i rst three songs blaring from the speakers were Li l Wayne, showing someone has a sense of humor and that whoever is in charge of the music selections did not consult Manning’s playlist.
Lil Way n e sat next to Beckham during the ESPN interview that triggered this entire weird episode. Beckham touched on several topics and sounded as if he was not happy with coach Pat Shurmur’s offense or Manning. Beckham lamented the inability to defeat cover-two defenses and asked, “How do we beat this? I feel like I’m getting out-schemed.” When a player speaks of getting “outschemed,” it always reflects badly on the coaching staff.
Asked if the Giants have a problem at quarterback, Beckham certainly did not give a vote of confidence to Manning, who has thrown every NFL pass Beckham has caught.
“Uhh, I don’t know,” Beckham said. “I feel like, he’s not going to get out of the pocket. We know Eli’s not going to run it. Can he still throw it? Yeah. It’s cool catching it shallow and trying to take it, but I want to go over the top of somebody.”
Shurmur was disappointed and angered by these comments and confronted Beckham about them. Giants ownership also was not happy. The team signed Beckham in August to a $95 million contract extension, making him the NFL’s highest-paid receiver. For that f inancial commitment, the Giants did not want to hear that Beckham, when asked if he likes playing for the Giants, said: “I love seeing the sunshine all the time. I love LA. I just like that atmosphere. I’m not a fan of the cold. This is where I’m at. This is where I’ll be at.’’
“I don’t watch Lil I Wayne much, so missed a lot of him,”
— Eli Manning