New York Giants are finally ready to discipline Odell Beckham Jr.
Odell Beckham Jr.’s outbursts have overshadowed his talent, and the New York Giants apparently are not going to keep looking the other way.
Odell Beckham Jr. was clearly off his game Monday night, with just three catches for 23 yards despite getting nine targets. A 15-yard penalty for taunting, and multiple little altercations with Minnesota Vikings’ cornerback Xavier Rhodes, basically negated any impact Beckham made as the Giants got nothing going offensively.
A week earlier Beckham offered some histrionics on the sideline, including an altercation with a kicking net that went viral. After the last two games, Giants’ head coach Ben McAdoo and quarterback Eli Manning have each been outspoken about Beckham and the distraction he is bringing. But now, there may be some action to back up that public sentiment.
According to Thomas George of SB Nation, citing two coaches, the Giants are ready to bench and perhaps suspend Beckham for one or two games if he has another outburst in Week 5 against the Green Bay Packers. It’s worth noting the game is on the Sunday night stage, so anything and everything Beckham-related will be highlighted.
It’s hard to believe the Giants would actually suspend Beckham for a game or two, even if he has a particularly bad outburst. Sitting him for a series or two is more realistic, if that even happens.
Beckham’s ability to deal with stardom and the scrutiny related to it is worth questioning, but the Giants could have headed off a lot of these current issues after his on-field incident with Josh Norman last season. Former head coach Tom Coughlin, who has now offered to help Beckham avoid being a distraction, inexplicably said he did not see the stuff going on with Norman during that game. Beckham should have been benched in the midst of that initial ordeal with Norman, and Coughlin’s excuse for not doing so was incredibly flimsy.
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Beckham needs to be on the field for the Giants’ offense to perform at its peak, and the NFL is obviously a results-oriented business. So time will tell if McAdoo has the guts to do what Coughlin wouldn’t last year, because Beckham’s next outburst is surely around the corner.