Former New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. once drew ire for appearing to speak ill of quarterback Eli Manning, but several years removed from his trade to the Cleveland Browns, OBJ says that’s not the case at all.
In fact, Beckham says, one of his biggest gripes with the Giants is that they completely wasted Manning’s final years and that the ever-loyal Manning never said a word about it.
“I will tell you where I ran into trouble,” Beckham told the “All Things Covered” podcast. “I felt like they never put people around Eli. I know I got a lot of [expletive] when I talked bad on Eli and I never once said a bad thing. If anything, I just 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.
“It bothered me because they never built around him and we were just drafting, but we were just drafting and not building an organization and a franchise. My frustration grew because it was another 5-11 and 5-11 and we were just never good. Even the year we were 11-5, the defense was holding teams to 10 points a game and we were only good because of the defense. My frustrations grew and I felt like they weren’t growing and I had wanted more.”
Beckham, of course, punched his ticket out of town shortly after a bizarre ESPN interview alongside Little Wayne in which he ripped the Giants, playing in New York and Eli himself to some degree.
Despite that moment of frustration, Beckham says he never envisioned playing for another team and was sold on bringing another championship back to the Giants.
“I never thought I would play for another team besides the Giants,” Beckham said. “I never wanted to win a championship for anybody more than the Giants, bro. It was just such a legendary place. I was very proud to be a part of that organization.”
Beckham added that the losing was too much in the end, and despite pleading with Manning for more, the next evolution never came.
“I ran into that problem when I felt they weren’t growing and evolving as an organization,” he said. “I wasn’t winning and I hated losing that bad. I was having great seasons, but I hated losing. I hated it, I hated it, and I feel like that’s where I ran into the problems.
“That was was really it for me, bro. I used to text Eli all the time, ‘Bro, you’re seventh on the list for greatest of all-time. Let’s [expletive] do it.’ I would come to work every day and giving them everything that I had and then I felt like when I was the one pushing. … I just felt like I was coming to an end of the road and I was pushing for something that wasn’t really tangible. That was where it all just kind of went haywire for me.”
When Pat Shurmur came in as head coach, Beckham felt that was the end of the line. He believed he was betrayed and needed to get out.
“We got a new coach in there and you know, it felt like that’s a situation I could be honest about now because people have come out and now it’s like, ‘anonymous coaches,’ but we all know who it’s about now,” Beckham said of Pat Shurmur. “I felt betrayed in a sense. This coach has tried to turn me against my brothers and my people. He was telling the young guys to stay away from me because I’m not a good teammate or role model.”
In the end, love him or hate him, Beckham isn’t lying. It was an unfortunately situation and one that wasted Manning’s final years and drove OBJ to Cleveland.
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