It’s hard to take in the fact that the New York Giants traded Odell Beckham Jr. The move shocked fans around the league, and one day after the deal happened, there’s still plenty of reactions pouring in from fans and media personalities alike about the entire situation. Those personalities include former Giants players, such as Justin Tuck, who has come out backing the front office and General Manager Dave Gettleman in this situation.
“I think Gettleman is doing what he thinks is best for the franchise for the long-term, and I don’t think anybody can question that,” Tuck said to the New York Post. He also claimed that he would be against the move if the Giants are in the same position two years from now, but that it’s too early to make the judgement.
“Everyone gets so emotional about these things, but I think all the players understand this is a business, and we need to approach it as a business, and things like this happen unfortunately. Long story short, I think Odell needed a new change of scenery as well as this team needed to move on and try to get what they got for him.”
But it seems unlikely that this deal happened because of Beckham needing a change of scenery, at least on his end. Beckham was one of the most enthusiastic players last season, even when the team’s record continued to get worse and worse. It seems that the move was not because of Beckham needing a change of scenery, but because of the upper executives deciding to pull the plug on Beckham’s time with the Giants.
According to Tuck, though, the move makes sense because the Giants were going to be in a rebuilding phase whether or not they moved Beckham.
“Also I think Gettleman’s looking at it from a perspective of this team had a lot of holes that he needs to find a way to fill, and they’re in a rebuilding phase anyway,” Tuck said.
But even if that’s what the Giants are doing, it’s never popular when a team looks like they aren’t even attempting to compete. The Giants are very obviously rebuilding and, with months left until the season, everyone can see that it’s their main focus this year. After the controversial move to send Beckham away, it will be interesting to see just how much fan enthusiasm is affected by knowing this.