Odell Beckham Jr. tops 1,000 yards for season, focus of brawl
Members of the St. Louis Rams and the New York Giants fight on the sideline during the first half of an NFL game Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014, in St. Louis. Members of both teams were ejected after the altercation. Credit: AP / Tom Gannam
ST. LOUIS - Odell Beckham Jr. caught a short pass late in the second quarter that gave him over 1,000 receiving yards on the season. And that may have been the least interesting thing that happened on the play.
Beckham was tackled hard out of bounds by Alec Ogletree, sparking a brawl on the Giants sideline that led to the ejection of three players: Preston Parker and Damontre Moore of the Giants and Williams Hayes of the Rams.
Beckham, who had already been involved in two taunting penalties earlier in the game -- one called against him, the other perpetrated against him -- caught the pass with just over two minutes left in the second quarter. Ogletree hit him out of bounds and a flag was thrown. Beckham took exception to the hit and then Ogletree hit Beckham in the head. That led to several Giants coming to the defense of their rookie star, including Parker (who threw at least one punch) and Jason Pierre-Paul. Meanwhile, the fight spilled to other areas of the field and Moore was tangled up with several Rams players and was throwing punches as well.
Besides the ejections, there was only one penalty assessed on the play and the Giants faced second-and-17 after several minutes of sorting out by the officials. They wound up punting and the Rams drove to the 2 before kicking a 20-yard field goal to cut the Giants' lead to 20-13 as time expired in the half.
Beckham finished the half with exactly 1,000 yards for the season. The Giants were penalized seven times for 96 yards in the first half. The Rams were flagged twice for 17 yards.
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.
