Odell Beckham Jr. isn’t one to hold back in any regard, and has gotten himself into some hot water before for speaking his mind. His uniform may have changed this offseason, but his personality certainly has not.
Beckham will appear on the NFL Preview edition of Sports Illustrated that will be coming out next week. On Tuesday, the magazine released their cover story online, in which Beckham addresses his trade from the Giants to Cleveland. While he’s expressed some displeasure in regards to how it all went down in the past, he went a step further with SI and accused the Giants of sending him to Cleveland out of spite and nothing more.
In a situation like his, Beckham says, a star player will often get a chance to discuss his preferred trade destinations. But he was never asked. In fact, he claims to know that the Giants received better offers and still chose to send him to Cleveland, out of spite, hoping to stain his career with the enduring stigma that comes with playing for the Browns. “This wasn’t no business move,” he says. “This was personal. They thought they’d send me here to die.” (The Giants declined to comment on Beckham’s exit.)
While there was a stigma surrounding the Browns, I’d say that’s on its way to changing. It also seems a tad unlikely that he would have known about the trade packages offered to the Giants, but crazier things have happened than a team taking out a personal vendetta against a controversial player in this manner, I guess.
We’ll never know the truth of it, that’s for sure. But it sounds like Beckham is ready to get back on the field and prove his former franchise they made a big mistake.
