NY Giants set to meet familiar of foe in Week 15 of season

The NY Giants have one of the spiciest games of the entire NFL season on their schedule when a familiar foe rolls into town for a Week 15 matchup.

It’s been two years now, but you can bet there will be ruckus NY Giants fans Odell Beckham haters in the stands by the thousand come Week 15 of this season.

After not matching up in Odell’s first season of where the Giants “sent him to die”, it will be interesting to see just how much hate remains for the former Big Blue superstar so far removed from the trade that came out of nowhere to send Beckham to Cleveland.

Just weeks after NY Giants GM, Dave Gettleman, said he “didn’t sign Odell to trade him”, he did just that, shocking Giants fans on a random evening in March.

The main reason for the trade – and why a solid portion of NY Giants despite Beckham – is that he chose to do a sitdown interview with Josina Anderson and Lil’ Wayne (of all people) where he was less than positive about the NY Giants’ situation as hole while also throwing jabs at Eli Manning.

As we’ve seen around these parts, disrespecting Eli any way is the fastest way to get jettison from East Rutherford.

As foolish and pointless as that interview was, to me, it was his only real egregious infraction as a member of the NY Giants. I saw a player that gave 110% percent effort every single game, wanted to win as bad as anyone, and someone that all of his teammates loved.

In short, I feel he got a bad rap in New York for one foolish mistake (the others were harmless and aimed at kicking nets or the other team) and that there should be no hard feelings when OBJ rolls back into town.

Without Odell, the current playoff drought is five years longer, as he made game-winning play after game-winning play in 2016 to carry the Giants offense into the playoffs as the team struggled to score points.

I mean, who can forget that cold December night at Metlife where neither team could get on the board in a pivotal divisional matchup, only for OBJ to house a slant 60 yards like we had seen him do many times before to clinch the game.

Oh, and that moonwalk…sheesh.

All-in-all, Beckham amassed 5,476 receiving yards on 390 catches for 44 touchdowns in what amounted to about four full seasons (five total, but not including injuries here).

Even with the injuries, Beckham shattered every three-year receiving record in the book and gave the NY Giants an electrifying player to scare other defenses. Although he – and the rest of the team – pooped the bed in the playoffs at Geren bay, it’s unfair to put that all on him – especially when he got them there.

Furthermore, it’s even more unfair to put the team’s overall lack of success during his tenure on him. There are 53 (now 55) players on a football team and one is not going to be able to change the fortunes of a franchise all by themselves – even a player as good as Beckham.

It’ll be interesting to see if fans keep that same energy for Saquon Barkley (they haven’t so far), as again, one player cannot make a team playoff relevant (outside of a couple QB’s).

My point is that its been two years the Giants seem to have gotten the better end of the trade (if you take away the $40M signing bonus Odell got), Odell never asked to be traded, and always gave it his all on the field

Let’s also not forget he came back from injury early in 2017 during a lost season to try to give one last-ditch effort to help the team. The notion that he wasn’t tough is a laughable one, as he routinely put his body at risk to make plays,

So maybe cool it on the burned jerseys in the parking lot and give the guy a hand for his terrific play for the NY Giants.