Odell Beckham Jr. video goes viral, raises eyebrows
Odell Beckham Jr. attends the NBA All-Star Game at Staples Center on Feb. 18, 2018, in Los Angeles. Credit: Getty Images / Kevork Djansezian
Might seven seconds of video compromise Odell Beckham Jr.’s future with the Giants?
Beckham was featured in a short video clip that made its way around the internet on Friday showing him with what many interpret to be drugs. The Giants’ star receiver is shown in bed with a woman (they are both clothed, with him under the blanket) and a pizza while holding what appears to be a brown cigarette in his hand. Toward the end of the video, the woman is holding a credit card near a white substance on a flat surface. Beckham can be heard saying: “I’m trying to get you to sleep with someone.” He does not appear to realize he is being recorded.
The NFL said it is aware of the video but declined to comment. The Giants are also aware of the video and declined to comment.
There is no other context to the video, which appears to have been first distributed via Snapchat.
It is the latest in a series of high-profile off-field incidents that raise the eyebrows of Giants fans as well as management. Incidents also include Beckham’s participation in a Miami getaway with fellow receivers less than a week before his first playoff game in January 2017 and his punching a hole in the wall at Lambeau Field following that playoff loss a few days later.
Beckham, 25, is coming off a season that was shortened by ankle surgery and is playing on the last year of his rookie contract. In January, team co-owner John Mara spoke about the possibility of signing Beckham to a long-term contract.
“I first want Pat [Shurmur, the head coach] to sit down with him and for them to have a good understanding of how we are going to act going forward,” Mara said. “I have a lot of confidence that it will work out well, but we’ll see.”
Shurmur said when he was hired: “I think with all things Odell, we just need to start talking and find out why things happened, and if they’re not what is by our standards, then we’ve got to find a way to get him fixed.”
General manager Dave Gettleman was asked about Beckham at the NFL Combine last week.
“It’s a clean slate,” Gettleman said. “I’m not worried about what happened in the past. You want to know the why — you’ve always got to get to the why — and eventually we’ll get to that. And if you don’t get to the why, you can’t figure it out. You can’t fix it. So we’ll get to the why, and we’ll move forward, and Pat and I feel the same way about it.”
Gettleman also noted, in the context of Beckham: “Let me tell you something: social media is evil . . . He’s a big boy. You gotta figure it out.”
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.
