Ex-Giant Odell Beckham Jr. on the Cowboys? Could happen.
Odell Beckham Jr. #13 of the New York Giants talks with Tony Siragusa after their game against the Washington Redskins at MetLife Stadium on December 14, 2014 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The New York Giants defeated the Washington Redskins 24 to 13. Credit: Getty Images/Alex Goodlett
Jerry Jones spent part of Tuesday publicly pining for Odell Beckham Jr., daydreaming out loud during a radio interview that the “Cowboys star on the helmet when he puts it on could look pretty good.”
Sterling Shepard’s reaction to that potential betrayal of their Giants brotherhood was visceral.
“No, no,” Shepard told Newsday when asked about the possibility of his former teammate and close friend signing with the Giants’ NFC East rival, his head shaking in disgust. “He better not do that to me.”
There are 32 teams in the NFL with which Beckham could conceivably sign as he approaches a return to action from a torn ACL suffered in the most recent Super Bowl. The hated Cowboys?
“That’s probably the last choice,” Shepard said.
It is, though, sounding more and more like a possible landing spot for a player whose most memorable moments in a Giants uniform came against those star-helmeted adversaries. There was, of course, The Catch, which thrust Beckham into public consciousness eight years ago this month. And the long touchdown he caught on a slant pass that helped propelled the Giants to their most recent playoff appearance in 2016.
In eight games against the Cowboys with the Giants and Browns Beckham has 40 catches for 558 yards and seven touchdowns.
All of those highlights probably serve only to whet Jones’ appetite for Beckham. Imagine the unsettling grin emanating from the owners’ box at AT&T Stadium while unveiling his newest playmaker on Thanksgiving Day? Against the Giants?
It may happen.
Over the weekend, a video of Beckham was posted in which he said he wants to sign a multiyear contract with his next team. He mentioned four teams in the video. The Cowboys were among them.
If Beckham has any lingering resentment toward the Giants for the way the organization handled his departure in the 2019 trade with the Browns, there would be few better ways to stick it to his original team than to suit up for its most despised enemy.
Jones isn’t the only one in Dallas making public overtures for Beckham.
“Man obj talk to me!” Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons tweeted. “Let’s do this [expletive]!”
Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said on Monday he has “always been a huge fan” of Beckham and that from the coaches he has spoken to – including former Giants head coach Ben McAdoo – “all the guys have nothing but great things to say about him.
“I’ve always been so impressed with his football playing ability,” McCarthy said. “I’ve heard so many excellent things about him over the years.”
While Shepard was gagging over the thought of Beckham in a Cowboys uniform, Beckham’s other remaining close pal in the Giants locker room was less offended by the idea.
“At the end of the day that’s my boy, one of my best friends, and I just want him to be happy,” Saquon Barkley told Newsday, stiff-arming the idea that he’d be upset to see Bekcham on the Cowboys. “I’ve seen the adversity he’s faced the last couple of years.”
There was one thing Shepard and Barkley agreed on regarding Beckham: That he would look better in a blue Giants helmet than a silver Cowboys one.
“I’ve been vocal about It before,” Barkley said. “I would love for him to play here and be teammates with him again. But wherever he lands, I’ll be happy for him.”
Shepard noted that Jones may think Beckham would look good with a star on his helmet but other teams probably think the same thing whether the logo be a charging buffalo or horns (of the ram or viking variety) or anything else.
“Or the NYG,” he said. “You never know.”
That remains highly unlikely even after Giants general manager Joe Schoen kept the door open for a reunion last week. If Beckham were to return to the Giants, it would almost certainly have to happen in March at the start of 2023’s free agency and not during this cash-strapped season.
Those few who knew Beckham when he was a Giant will probably have to deal with the disappointment of him playing elsewhere, but it will be merged with the joy of seeing him play at all. Shepard was at Beckham’s 30th birthday bash this weekend and while they did not talk business, Shepard said Beckham told him he is feeling good and close to coming back from his injury.
“I’ll be happy for him for real to go back out there and do his thing regardless of who it’s with,” Shepard said, recanting just a bit of his Cowboys hatred and including Dallas in that mix, “I just want to see him out there on that field.”
“Wherever he lands I’ll be happy for him,” Barkley said. “Go have fun.”
He had just one request for his buddy.
“When you play us, just take it down a little bit.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
