New York Giants star wideout Odell Beckham Jr. is ready to ink a long-term deal with New York, and he’s using the media to push the issue.
Most NFL players are doing one of two things in February: preparing to play in the Super Bowl, or, if they’re a member of the 30 other teams not competing for Lombardi Trophy, thinking about their contracts.
Beckham used his red carpet appearance at the NFL Honors ceremony Saturday night to make his expectations for his future contract clear.
After all, the star wideout has some furniture to buy.
“Hopefully to get it done,” Beckham said, via NJ.com.
“It’s that time just to get it over with. I really want to do it so I can move past it. It’s too much sitting around thinking, ‘Where am I going to be at?’ I need to know where I can start buying furniture for a house. I want to have a place set where I know, ‘OK, this is home. I can always go back to home.’ So it’s just a little intermediate process right now. I’m sure it will get worked out.”
Beckham also said that he’s not sure if contract negotiations have actually started between the team and his agent. The Giants receiver is under contract through the 2018 season, with a base salary of $8.49 million.
This isn’t the first time Beckham has used the media to relay a message to the Giants organization about his future. At the beginning of training camp in 2017, Beckham relayed via an UNINTERRUPTED video that he wants to be the highest-paid player in football.
That’s right; not at his position, not among all players save quarterbacks, but among every single NFL player.
“It’s like the elephant in the room, and you don’t want to talk about it,” Beckham says in the video.
For Beckham to be the NFL’s highest-paid player, he’ll have to negotiate more than Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford’s five-year, $135 million extension with $60.5 million guaranteed.
And Beckham will have some competition; it’s very likely that the Green Bay Packers make quarterback Aaron Rodgers the league’s next highest player soon.
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For his part, owner John Mara doesn’t seem to be fazed by Beckham’s expectations. When Mara introduced new head coach Pat Shurmur in late January, he added that the organization will “get something done at the appropriate time” in terms of Beckham’s new deal.
But to ask Beckham, that time is right now.