Odell Beckham Jr.: 'I can do better' controlling my emotions
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Odell Beckham Jr. showed remorse.
He acknowledged a need to change. He stopped short of apologizing, but the New York Giants receiver admitted that his emotional reactions to physical play and trash talk need to change.
“I definitely know I can do a better job at that,” Beckham told reporters Thursday at his locker after practice. “The thing that kills me is I remember when I was a kid and I looked up to somebody and watched them and emulated them and did things like that. What I’m doing is not something I would want a 6-year-old boy to be out there and learn from.
“Because honestly, that’s really all I care about, is being able to have that ability to be a blessing to someone else and be an inspiration. That’s a lot of power. It feeds my soul. I would never want to set a bad example for any kids or anything like that. I’m just doing the best to be me.”
USA TODAY Sports' Week 5 NFL picks
Beckham has quickly gained the reputation around the NFL for being a hothead. It’s the result of his ugly on-field blowup last year in a Week 15 game against then-Panthers cornerback Josh Norman, and consecutive incidents in the last two weeks against the Redskins and Norman and then Vikings cornerback Xavier Rhodes.
The blueprint on Beckham is out: Irritate him enough and he might just unravel. And this season it is working.
While his overall numbers aren’t terrible – 22 catches for 303 yards – they are hardly elite and the Vikings held him to 3 catches for a career-low 23 yards. He has yet to catch a TD pass this season .
“You have to accept the situation and know that that’s going to be the case,” Beckham said. “It’s like blood in the water. You think that a shark smells the blood, they’re going to swim around it. Apparently there’s blood in the water. You just keep swimming and be fearless.”
Jim Schwartz on Eagles' Nigel Bradham: 'You're going to be labeled a dumbass'
Just 20 minutes earlier, Giants offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan said opposing cornerbacks resort to trash talk because they are “not courageous enough, or brave enough, or man enough, or whatever you want to say to play him straight up.”
Even Beckham couldn’t blame opposing corners for baiting him.
“Absolutely not,” he said when asked if he faults players for trying to get in his head. “I’d probably do the same. But I think it has gotten to the point where I just want to compete, and none of the extra stuff. I just want to compete but that never seems to be the case. But you just keep smiling and it will be straight. It will all work itself out when we start winning some games and picking up this offense.”
Earlier this week in an interview with ESPN Radio, Beckham said he’s “not having fun anymore.”
On Thursday, Beckham backtracked and said he’s “always having fun.”
This story has even travelled to Vatican City, where Giants co-owner John Mara was asked about Beckham during a conference there Thursday.
“He's a young man who is very emotional but he's basically a very good young man who does a lot of good things off the field,” Mara told The Associated Press. “But he plays the game with a lot of passion and sometimes he goes a little too far.”
Mara later added: "But that's true with a lot of players. Unfortunately for him it seems like everybody's focused on him right now.”
As a collection of reporters and cameramen met him at his locker, that much was clear.
The unusually contrite Beckham, however, said all the right things.
“Sometimes you need to refocus,” Beckham said. “Sometimes you need things to happen to bring you back. It’s always the tough times that make the great ones that much better.”
Now he just needs to back it up.
Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes.
PHOTOS: Week 5 games ranked by watchability
