The Odell Beckham Jr. era with New York Giants began with such promise, but it gradually spiraled out of control, ultimately leading to the star wide receiver being traded to the Cleveland Browns.
Since that trade in March of 2019, Beckham has been critical of the Giants organization and even Eli Manning to some degree, but in a recent episode of the “All Things Covered” podcast with Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden, Beckham opened up and where things went wrong – which actually included a defense of Manning.
“I never wanted to win a championship for anybody more than the Giants,” Beckham said. “They just were such a legendary place. I was very proud to be a part of that organization.
“I’m [going] to tell you where I ran into trouble. It was when I felt like we had had the pieces, we know that Eli is a little older, I’ve been here now – I’ve given you two seasons. I’m capable. I can hoop. I felt like [the Giants] never put people around Eli. I know I got a lot of s—t for when they said I talked bad on Eli. I never once said a bad thing. If anything, I speak the truth. The only thing I can look back on and be like, ‘Man, I regret saying that’ is saying he’s not the same player, even though it’s the truth.”
Beckham first spoke critically of Manning while he was still on the team during an infamous ESPN interview with Josina Anderson that included Lil’ Wayne. Beckham questioned the heart of the team and seemed uncertain if Manning was the right guy at quarterback, lamenting that he could not throw the ball downfield anymore.
After Beckham was traded, he also told GQ that the only reason fans came to the game were to see him, which was seen as another shot at Manning.
Now, Beckham says it was management that failed Manning to continue to excel.
“If they would have built around him, knowing, ‘Ok, he’s obviously not running anymore but he’s not trying – he’s 40, he’s 39 -- he’s not trying to get hit,’” Beckham said. “Tom Brady is not taking sacks, is he? It bothered me because they never built around him. We just kept drafting but we were just drafting. Not building an organization and franchise. We were never good.”
The Giants had just one winning season with Beckham, making the playoffs in 2016 – which included the infamous boat trip. But the following season the Giants went 3-13 and Beckham played in just four games before needing season-ending surgery on a fractured ankle.
The team fired Ben McAdoo and brought in Pat Shurmur as the new head coach, but Beckham revealed that things did not go smoothly between him and Shurmur.
“We got a new coach in there, I feel like that’s a situation where I feel like I can be honest about now because people have come out like ‘anonymous coaches’ and we really knew who it was,” he said. “I felt betrayed in a sense that this coach had tried to turn me against my brothers and my people and telling the young guys to stay away from me because I’m not a good person, good team or role model, or this and that.”
Beckham, who will miss the Browns game against the Giants in two weeks because of his season-ending ACL tear, said he can dish more of the details on what transpired at the end of his career.
“I feel like, at the end of my career I will be able to tell everybody the real truth of all this s—t; I’ll come out and tell everybody everything,” he said. “For the meantime, it just saves me drama when I don’t speak on it too much.”
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