New York Post

Odell huddles with owner, sorry for flag

- By PAUL SCHWARTZ paul.schwartz@nypost.com

Odell is sorry … for the penalty.

As for getting down on all fours, lifting his leg and pretending he was urinating like a dog, well, not so much.

In what amounts to the student getting called in to meet with the superinten­dent, Odell Beckham Jr. was summoned into the office of John Mara on Wednesday, with Beckham’s dog-peeing touchdown celebratio­n and the resulting 15-yard pen- alty drawing the ire of the Giants’ co-owner. Mara told The Post on Tuesday he was “very unhappy’’ with the antics of the star receiver in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 27-24 loss to the Eagles, dropping the sagging Giants to 0-3.

Beckham called it “a private discussion’’ with Mara and never once publicly apologized for the crass stunt, stressing he regretted incurring a penalty.

Asked if he felt he embarrasse­d the organizati­on with the celebratio­n, Beckham said, “More myself, I guess. The only thing is causing a penalty for the team, is really it. I don’t even know if they knew whether to call a flag or not because the look of confusion on their face was, ‘ Do we throw the flag or not?’ and it was like he threw the flag. The only regret is causing us 15 yards, had to cover a long kickoff. Thankfully we didn’t have any setback from there, covered the kickoff.’’

In the future, Beckham said he will opt for a different way to mark his territory, er, touchdowns.

“I do know going forward I have a lot of better cel- ebrations,’’ he said.

Was the dog-urinating stunt in the fourth quarter out of line? Beckham chose not to address his own comportmen­t, opting instead to express confusion with the newly relaxed NFL rules involving celebratio­ns.

“I don’t know,’’ he said. “I don’t think any of us know the rules on what you can do, celebratin­g. They put in the new celebratio­n thing to kind of make is seem the players can celebrate and then you celebrate and you only have 40 seconds, so if you celebrate for 20 you only got 20 seconds to run on and kick, so I really don’t know how it works.’’

Beck ham on Twitter insinuated the celebratio­n was in response to President Trump referring to an NFL player who kneels down during the national anthem a “son of a bitch.’’ Beckham did not entertain any questions on his intent.

“I want to talk about Tampa now,’’ he said, referring to Sunday’s opponent for the 0-3 Giants. “I’m really focused on Tampa. We can just move to Tampa because that’s all that’s important right now.’’

Coach Ben McAdoo has yet to offer his take on the celebratio­n, preferring to focus his criticism to the penalty it caused.

“Celebratio­n penalties are things you can’t have,’’ McAdoo said. “It’s a poor reflection on me, on the program and on the organizati­on.’’

Moving forward, McAdoo said if it happens again “we have a plan for it.’’

McAdoo called Beckham’ s two touch down receptions in the game “two of the finest plays you’ll ever see in pro football since I’ve been in the league. Those are getting overshadow­ed. It’s unfortunat­e.

“Whether it was or it wasn’t a penalty,’’ McAdoo said, “it’s still not something that we’re condoning.’’

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States