ODELL JA VU
Beckham gives New York reminder what it’s missing
HE CAUGHT a slant from Baker Mayfield at around the 20 and then he was gone, running like the wind, turning on the jets and away from Jets chasing him, an 89-yard touchdown reminder to the New York Football Giants of what once was, and could have been.
“It was just kinda like closing a chapter today,” Beckham said.
A Big Blue chapter that had ended with harsh personal feelings for Giants GM Dave Gettleman, who exiled him.
“No animosity, no hate,” Beckham said. “I’m full of love. I wish everybody over there nothing but the best. I have brothers over there. I want to see them succeed. I want nothing but the best for them.
“They made a decision. We parted ways, and that’s just it.”
It was the longest touchdown of his career and it was also an 89-yard touchdown statement to Jets defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who shouldn’t dare be asking Odell Who? anymore and dismissing his dynamic gifts.
Beckham (six catches, 161 yards, TD) exacted his revenge on Williams, and Jarvis Landry exacted his on Adam Gase in the Browns’ 23-3 victory over the toothless Trevor Siemian-Luke Falk Jets.
“I didn’t know if I was gonna make it to the end zone, but God willing I did,” Beckham said. “I had a big smile on the inside, I knew I was gone, I needed them hamstrings to hold up for me.”
He had cramped up at the end of the first half and his hamstrings felt tight. He missed the end zone dearly after missing the last four games of the Giants’ 2018 season with a torn quad. “It’s been a long time,” Beckham said. Beckham, asked about Williams’ comments, joked: “Who?”
Did the comments fuel his performance?
“Everything fuels me,” Beckham said. “Good comments about me, bad comments — everything fuels me, I feel all of it. I just want to be the very best that I can.”
Beckham first answered Odell Who? on the opening Browns series when he reached out his right hand with Nate Hairston glued to him and a roar he used to hear at MetLife Stadium in his New York Giants No. 13 jersey erupted.
Beckham made this one-handed grab so near to where he made The Catch that changed his life — this one for 33 yards from Mayfield, this one to the Jets’ 5-yard line, this one without the eye-popping $2 million watch he wore in pregame.
“I seen the ball go up and I literally was feeling like, ‘ Am I a rookie again?’ like this is the same exact moment, same exact play, and you forget how dark it is at this stadium and how hard it is to track the ball, and I just seen it and I just knew I had to make a play,” Beckham said.
Before the night was done, you wondered what the army of exasperated, demoralized Giants fans were thinking, what a weapon Odell Who? could have been for Daniel Jones once Pat Shurmur takes the keys to the kingdom away from Eli Manning.
Of course, in the it’s-always-something-category, the drama king was forced to leave the field before a thirdand-5 throwaway that forced the Browns to settle for a field goal because ... wait for it ... he was wearing an illegal visor.
“It’s just frustrating,” Beckham said. “It’s just always something with me. It’s frustrating, but all I want is it to just be equal across the league, don’t single anybody out. Still don’t know what the right visor would be.”
Mayfield tried to hit Beckham with a 40-yard TD bomb at the end of the first half but Marcus Maye batted it away. Beckham sat in the end zone for a few seconds before retreating to the sideline and jogging off to the locker room with 20 seconds remaining in the half.
“I was trying to accelerate and I couldn’t, like as I’m running both of ’em were cramping,” Beckham said.
But he was back for the second half. With a vengeance.
“I heard he wasn’t the most dynamic player in the NFL,” Landry said. “We got a chance to see that tonight.”
I asked Landry where he had heard that.
“Gregg Williams said that,” Landry said, and smiled.