Odell Beckham Called Out by Giants Owner John Mara

Odell Beckham Jr. Browns trade

Getty Odell Beckham Jr.

Odell Beckham Jr. has drawn the ire of New York Giants president, CEO, and co-owner John Mara.

“I wish he would create the headlines by his play on the field as opposed to what he says and what he does off the field,” Mara said on Tuesday at the NFL owners’ meetings, according to ESPN’s Dan Graziano. “I think he needs to do a little more playing and a little less talking.”

Odell Beckham Fined

Before the Giants got blown out by the Philadelphia Eagles 34-13 on Thursday, the team fined Beckham for comments he made in an interview with ESPN.

“How come we can’t throw the ball for more than 20 yards? How come we don’t attempt or try to throw the ball for more than 20 yards?” the star wide receiver said in the interview, which aired last Sunday. “Those are questions that we have to figure out. But for now, I would say it’s our heart, it’s our energy. It’s what we bring when we line up before the game, all of that. It counts.”

His comments drew an undisclosed fine from the team, just over a month after they signed him to a $95 million contract.

“The things that I said, could the approach have been a different way? Could it have been handled a different way? I think when you look back on anything and there’s things that are conflicting or things that get mixed up you always look back and be like ‘it could have been handled a different way,’“ Beckham said on his Uninterrupted series “I Am More: OBJ” a day after his team’s Thursday defeat.

“I know it may have came off however it came off but my message was to be nothing more than encouraging everybody to be their very best.”

Eagles Destroy the Giants

In Thursday’s loss, Beckham reeled in six catches for a season-low 44 receiving yards. With two seconds remaining in the first half and the offense on the field, he headed to the team’s locker room. Head coach Pat Shurmur said after the loss that the wideout had gone to the locker room for an IV.

After the Giants scored a touchdown on their first drive of the second half, Beckham had this encounter with an air blower on the sideline.

“I was trying to get myself fired up,” Beckham said after the game, according to ESPN. “I did that, and it helped me. There was a lot of things that had me fired up. Like I said, it helped me bring out the energy — I don’t know a way around it but to get myself going.”

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