Former Giants Receiver Odell Beckham Jr Reflects on Famous Catch, Reveals What's Next

Former New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. became a household name one fateful night early in his career. He reflects on the catch and more.

An early season Sunday Night Football game during former New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr's rookie season would forever change his life. That night, the rookie receiver would make one of the best one-handed catches in league history, propelling him to stardom.

"The catch. Sunday Night Football. Giants. Cowboys. I mean, I'm just in flow, you know, and (quarterback) Eli (Manning), he's just so incredible," Beckham Jr. told James Corden on his show, "This Life of Mine with James Corden," appearing on SiriusXM Radio.

"He just puts this ball perfectly exactly where I needed to be as he would joke with me, but I just was so in the moment, like it felt like a moment of slow-mo. It felt like a moment of this is that opportunity."

Beckham was already turning heads during his early tenure with the Giants. He won the Offensive Player of the Year honors as a rookie in 2014. He also became the first player to record more than 75 receptions, 1,100 yards, and ten touchdowns in a rookie season, and broke the rookie record for the most average receiving yards per game.

But it was that one catch that seemingly broke open the dam on Beckham's superstardom, which Corden surmised saw the receiver "fall over as 'Odell' and stand up as 'OBJ.'"

"To me, it was only like, 'Finally, I caught it one hand.' I didn't know that lightning struck," Beckham said. "I didn't know that my life would forever be changed. I didn't know the magnitude of the moment."

Unfortunately for Beckham, it went downhill for him and the Giants. After three straight 1,000-yard receiving seasons, he suffered a season-ending ankle injury four games into his 2017 season.

Despite that, New York thought enough of him to re-sign him to a five-year, $95 million contract extension with $41 million fully guaranteed as part of $65 million in total guarantees.

But the following off-season, amid increasing trade rumors despite then-general manager Dave Gettleman's insistence that he "didn't sign Beckham to trade him," Beckham was traded to the Cleveland Browns on March 13, 2019 in exchange for Cleveland's first- and third-round draft picks (which became defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence and outside linebacker Oshane Ximines), and safety Jabrill Peppers, a former first-round draft pick.

Beckham has since played for the Los Angeles Rams, with whom he won a Super Bowl despite suffering his second ACL injury (his first came while with the Browns in 2020), and most recently, the Baltimore Ravens.

Beckham said his NFL journey has helped him view life differently.

"I don't know what to call it," he said. "I would just say soul searching. You know, I've been more on my own than I ever have been. I've been in solitude and just finding out so much about me.

"Even when you know how life goes, when things happen in certain situations where you've been there before and things that might have irritated you, the fact that you can even realize that this is something that, maybe in the past, might have irritated you.

"You start to see the growth within yourself, and I think that's something that's going on with me," Beckham said. "It's just been a lot of growth, you know? It's been a lot of hardships. I'm just very happy with where I'm going. Obviously, not exactly where I want to be, but where I'm headed to, I'm enjoying that."

Beckham and the Ravens came up one win shy of getting to this year's Super Bowl, but the 31-year-old receiver hopes there is one more Super Bowl championship in his career before he hangs up his cleats.

"[More rings] would be the goal," he said. "I don't know what team, I don't know if it's Baltimore again--I don't know anything--but it would be to win another ring and, hopefully, to play, you know, I'll just put a cap on it and say four years max, be done, and then live my life and create businesses, do things that I love and care for.

"I just know that this life after football will not be as bad as I've made it to be."

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