Buddy ball for Odell
LSU mates OBJ, Dolphins’ Landry give each other a (one)hand
Odell Beckham Jr. can wreck a game. We’ve all seen it. He could wreck Monday night’s game for the Dolphins as the Giants try, once again, to leave behind their losing ways.
Beckham could shred the Miami defense, make those in the seats at Sun Life Stadium gasp in awe. Down on the field, at least one member of the Dolphins will be hoping to see some Beckham magic.
“Absolutely,’’ Jarvis Landry, Dolphins receiver and member of the very short list of Beckham’s best buds, said Wednesday on a conference call. “It’s a friendship, it’s a brotherhood, it’s a bond that’s grown way beyond the game. His success means everything to me, as mine is to him. I want him to have the game of his life but I want to win the game. At the same time, I’m rooting for him.’’ Right back at you. “I can’t say that out loud, but I always want to see him do well,’’ Beckham said. “It’s unfortunate it’s against my team, but I hope they do a great job at containing or doing whatever they need to do, but at the same time, I always love seeing him succeed.’’
Landry and Beckham are both Louisiana products, met at a football camp in Tuscaloosa, Ala., as high-school juniors and that was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. They played together at LSU and made big splashes as NFL rookies. Landry caught 84 passes for 758 yards and five touchdowns in 2014 for the Dolphins — excellent production from a second-round draft pick. Of course, it paled in comparison to Beckham’s Rookie of the Year eruption in only 12 games for the Giants.
It is not only the catches and yards with these two. “Well, there’s a definite flare,’’ coach Tom Coughlin said. You think? Landry said there’s a highlight tape — he has misplaced his copy — that shows all the sensational and astonishing twohanded and one-handed grabs he and Beckham made in college. It is called the “Freak Catch Tape,” put together by LSU running backs coach Frank Wilson. The duo is famous for making the impossible seem ordinary with an array of one-handed catches, plucked out of the air from seemingly impossible angles and heights.
The best catch Landry ever has seen out of Beckham? He said it happened at an LSU practice. “I wouldn’t say it was
behind his head, but behind his head basically,’’ Landry said. “It’s crazy to even really talk about it. It’s hard to even explain. It was actually from the 30 [yard-line] going in, almost similar to the Dallas game, but way more freakier.’’
Beckham has his list of Landry favorites.
“I mean he had two one-hand catches backto-back years against Arkansas, two ridiculous catches,’’ Beckham said. “In practice, I mean, words really don’t do it justice. I can’t even sit here and try and give you a good enough picture, it’s something that you just have to see.’’
Landry said he and Beckham speak every day “no matter what.’’ Face Time, text s , constant communication, with Bengals running back Jeremy Hill, another former LSU teammate, also included. When the Giants arrive in Miami on Sunday, Landry said he will pick up Odell at the team hotel and take him to dinner.
Landry is the Dolphins’ leading receiver this season, with 78 receptions for 821 yards and four touchdowns. Again, Beckham (78-1,154, 10 TDs) has outdone him. Both the Giants and Dolphins are 5-7, but only the Giants — thanks to the moribund NFC East — are in the playoff hunt. As fort hep re game entertainment wow-factor these two always generate, there could be something special cooked up.
“We’re thinking about it,’’ Landry said. “Me and him will get together that day during pregame and we’ll put something together.’’
Beckham said: “I just want to see him be the greatest receiver of all time and I think it’s the same for me.’’ He admits it will be strange to be on the same field as Landry, but in a different uniform.
“This is a game that, I know you take it one game at a time, but it’s been marked on the schedule for a long time,’’ Beckham said. “Just an opportunity like this to play against a brother in the National Football League is something that I don’t want to say I never imagined possible, but just it finally being here is all so surreal. It should be a wonderful opportunity.’’