Is Odell Beckham Jr. still relevant for the New York Giants? The receiver departed the team this offseason after being dealt to the Cleveland Browns in the same trade that brought Jabrill Peppers to New York, but Beckham’s name hasn’t stopped coming up and with the first season in recent memory where the Giants will be without Beckham approaching rapidly, it feels like the situation between Beckham and the Giants will continue to be talked about until we can see just whether or not the Giants made the right move trading him.
This time, it’s the current starting quarterback of the Giants that was asked about the subject of Beckham. It’s no secret by now that the war of words between the Giants and Beckham ended up reaching Eli Manning, but this time, in an interview with Sal Paolantonio, Manning spoke more about the subject and gave a surprisingly honest answer.
“Obviously I have wonderful memories with Odell. I’ve known Odell a long time, since he was a junior in high school. That’s probably the first time I threw a pass to Odell. Both growing up in New Orleans, we went to the same high school. We had a number of great years and big plays and exciting plays here,” Manning said, when asked about his thoughts on Beckham moving on.
But Manning also acknowledged some of the harder truths of the NFL, the fact that the league is a business and that situations like the Beckham one are bound to happen.
“Unfortunately this business, teammates move on and go to different places, whether it’s trades or retirement or whatnot. You go through it, and sometimes it’s just not a happy ending. It rarely ends happily for anybody in this league, but obviously feelings get hurt and things happen. People say things. But I think we both want to move on…”
Manning wished Beckham success but claimed that the pair haven’t talked much since Beckham left for Cleveland – which seems natural enough, given the tension between the two camps ever since the deal went down. “I hope, eventually all of this gets put behind and we can just enjoy the places where we are right now and what’s going forward and just kind of laugh about this one day,” Manning admitted.
It’s a sentiment that most fans of the Giants will agree with – Odell Beckham Jr. was one of the most popular players in the league with the Giants and will likely have some Giants fans still cheering him on in Cleveland, after all. Most would wish for the breakup between Beckham and the team to be an amicable one, even if right now, it does seem like the split left both sides hurting in different ways.
Will the Giants and Beckham ever be on friendly terms again? It’s hard to say. This season, however, we know for sure that we’ll find out just how the Giants are looking on the field without the wide receiver that defined the position group for the Giants for the past five seasons.