New York Giants

Odell Beckham Jr. is a whining, tantrum-throwing mess, but the Giants shouldn't worry

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:03 p.m. ET

Chris Chase

If you're going to have a meltdown in the middle of a career-worst slump, there's no worse place to do it than New York.

Odell Beckham Jr. is learning that lesson this NFL season, especially after a Monday night no-show in Minnesota during which the hothead was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for various acts, including making contact with an official.

"Purple Craze," shouted the back cover of the New York Daily News. "OBJ loses cool again," the New York Post splashed in a surprisingly restrained subhed. National outlets are all over him too, correctly calling out his childish behavior and fairly wondering whether his attitude will derail what should be a promising, and possibly Hall of Fame worthy, career. The question is legit and so is the obvious worry from Eli Manning and new New York Giants coach Ben McAdoo.

But make no mistake, Odell Beckham Jr. isn't beyond saving, not in the least. He's still 23 years old, playing on a team that lost its longtime coach, is getting the bulk of attention from defenses that don't have to worry too much about a running game and is in the kind of slump that sometimes affects players who don't have control of where the ball. He'll break out of this because talent, even the kind of talent that's gone astray, wins out in the NFL (provided you stay on the field). And ODB is talented as anyone who's seen his circus-like catches can attest. Like a baseball player one fat breaking ball away from a slumpbuster, all it's going to take for Beckham to be back is one go route with Eli placing the ball in the numbers.

Maybe that will come in Week 5. For now, Beckham is public enemy No. 1 and not without cause. Worst of all, he seems oblivious to the controversy surrounding his 23-yard game that came with a career-low three catches and kept a goose egg in his 2016 touchdown column. He thinks all this talk is about his play on the field, not his attitude on it, telling reporters:

"Nobody on another team bothers, upsets me. It’s all within us. I only get upset with us, my team, myself. It has nothing to do with anybody else, period. There’s no 'getting in your head' or any of that other stuff. That’s all talk to create distraction, which doesn’t really work."

Tell that to the kicking net from last week.

Delusion aside (and there's plenty of it), Beckham's current infamy is mostly because of his lack of production. If he had 126 yards and 2 touchdowns Monday night - numbers he routinely put up last year while having all the on-field rage he does now - the penalty is just Odell being Odell. His and the Giants struggles exacerbate the problem.

That's not to say Beckham is an innocent, no matter what numbers he puts on the score sheet. The game last year that exposed his penchant for tantrums and aggression was as ugly a display as the modern NFL has ever seen. The penalty on Monday was well deserved and not, as Beckham claims, for "[tying] my shoe the wrong way."

But jawing with opponents? Getting in the face of officials? Having sideline meltdowns? Not running routes? This is the stuff of which diva wide receivers are made. Jerry Rice was cool as can be, proving you don't need an attitude to become the best WR in history. But the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 players on the all-time receiving touchdown list? Try Randy Moss, Terrell Owens and Cris Carter, angels all.

Beckham deserves the criticism, the same way Moss and Owens did. Passion and desire are great traits to have but they don't need to come with the penchant for spearing cornerbacks who have the audacity to cover him well. Beckham has to figure out a way to keep it relatively cool for 60 minutes. The smart money says he can, even if he continues to embrace that diva image.

Almost all the Beckham negativity emerging Tuesday notes that his downhill slide began with that on- and off-field war with Josh Norman near the end of last season - the one that launched a thousand hot takes on how Beckham skirted ejection and should be suspended (which he was, for one week). Prior to that game, Beckham had six straight games with over 100 yards and was averaging 1.3 touchdown per game. That afternoon, Norman and the Panthers held him mostly in check, which, as us armchair psychiatrists said, was likely the catalyst for Beckham's "malicious" behavior, as Norman called it.

Since then Beckham has gone over 100 yards once in six games (against Norman and his new Redskins team, interestingly enough) and scored a single touchdown, none this year. That's not some convenient, cherrypicked launching point. The numbers don't lie - Beckham hasn't been as good since that game.

But do you remember what happened at the end of that December thriller? After all the trash talk, spearing, headhunting, bluster and penalties? On fourth-and-5 with 1:54 remaining and the Giants down seven, Beckham slowplayed his route, hit the gas, sprinted past Norman, put a sweet little double-move on him, sprinted free and, at the last second, managed to come back to catch a slightly under-thrown Eli Manning pass to tie the game.

All you have to do is give him some time.