Odell Beckham Jr.’s stock has fallen massively since his days with the New York Giants and the LA Rams, to the extent that he’s unemployed now. But recently, the former star wide receiver revealed that he had never wanted to leave New York, which goes against what he said at the time of his happiness in the city.
Advertisement
Odell has played in the NFL for 10 seasons now for five different teams, but he only ever succeeded early on with the side that drafted him. It was only in New York that he had a connection with the team and fans. In five seasons with the Giants, he caught 390 passes for 5476 yards and 44 touchdowns. By far the most production in any stretch of his career.
However, in October 2018, Odell had a controversial interview with Josina Anderson of ESPN, which eventually led to his departure from New York. He was first asked at the time whether the Giants had a problem at quarterback with Eli Manning.
“Uh, I don’t know,” Odell said, sitting alongside Lil Wayne. He was later asked if he was happy in the city. “That’s a tough question,” he responded.
The comments came amid a disastrous 1-7 start to the Giants’ 2018/19 season. While Odell was producing at his normal level, the team wasn’t, and his comments added fuel to the fire. He would later sustain a quad injury that forced him to miss the final three games of the season. Then, in March of 2019, Odell was traded to the Cleveland Browns.
Even after the trade, OBJ was open about the fact that he wasn’t happy in New York.
“I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t in a good place. And like I told you earlier, I feel like everything is about happiness, and I just was not,” Odell told GQ in 2019.
So, it’s clear that OBJ wasn’t happy when he was in New York, and he got what he wanted at the time. At least that’s what many assumed. But this was not the case, and it seems that he never wanted to leave the city back then.
That’s right, years later, Odell was caught walking back his previous statements on live TV while addressing them during CBS’ coverage of the UEFA Champions League Final.
“I never, ever wanted to leave the Giants. The reason you heard me talking about what was going on was because I was pissed because, where I come from in college, if we lost one game, our season was over,” Odell said.
It makes some sense, but at the same time, it’s a bit of revisionist history. In his five seasons with the Giants, they made the playoffs only once, losing in the Wild Card round. Odell’s frustrations at the time seemed centered around wanting to win. So, he forced himself out like most would’ve done in his situation.
That’s why when Reddit came across the news, they called Odell out for the quote. They weren’t biting on the bait he was offering.
“Man is desperate for a job,” one commented.
“He needs Indeed,” someone responded jokingly.
Comment
byu/BreakfastTop6899 from discussion
innfl
In some ways, it seems like an act of desperation on Odell’s part. One could even make the inference from recent Instagram posts that he’s contemplating retirement. Now, it seems like he’s trying to clean up all of his bad history to make himself look better to possible teams who are interested in signing him.
Other Redditors looked back on Odell’s quotes from 2018 and drew their conclusions.
“I mean, he certainly didn’t act like he wanted to be there either,” one pointed out.
“Brother is capping hard,” someone agreed.
As of now, Odell hasn’t officially announced his retirement. But his lack of production with the Miami Dolphins and disinterest from teams wanting to sign him led us to believe his playing days could be over. He’ll probably hang around and sign with a team that is dealing with injuries. Yet it’s hard to imagine the 32-year-old ever making a big impact in the league again.
Odell’s career is one we’ll look back on with a bunch of “what ifs.” His early career production had us thinking about and projecting wild things for him at the time. He just never lived up to them because of drama and injury.
But man, what a one-handed catch he had against the Dallas Cowboys that one time! That’s what he’ll be mostly remembered for.
