New York Giants’ wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. went from sitting on the sidelines with a hamstring injury to instant popularity after making his famous three-fingered catch this past regular season.
About to make his first Pro Bowl appearance, Beckham, who was selected fourth overall in the Pro Bowl draft, spoke on Wednesday evening about his overnight popularity (via NFL.com).
It’s pretty insane what social media can do nowadays. After the catch I didn’t fully expect everything that came with it. Just me being me. I didn’t think it would draw as much attention as it did. But it did what it did and it comes with the game.
Excited to play in the Pro Bowl, Beckham claimed he just wants to learn all he can while having access to the Hall of Fame receivers this week.
Watching and seeing what they are doing and picking their brains while you can. Cris Carter, Michael Irvin are guys that I’ve talked to and I’ve tried to pick their brains and just understand what it takes to get where they are at.
Sharing his enthusiasm for the upcoming 2015 season, Beckham sounds like he is more than ready tackle it.
I’m looking forward to the challenge of doing what I did this year, if not better. Hopefully we are in the playoffs and that will be a little more exciting then the season ending so soon.
Beckham had a phenomenal rookie season. He ended up recording 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns in 12 games after returning from the aforementioned hamstring injury. Beckham’s most astonishing statistic was the 133.2 yards he put up per game as a rookie.
Beckham completely outplayed fellow rookies in a class that was stacked at receiver. The closest rookie behind him was Mike Evans with 254 fewer receiving yards.
The young Giants receiver also indicated that he plans on being even better in 2015. If that’s the case, the rest of the NFC East should start stacking up on defensive backs.
As Beckham prepares to take on the 2015 season, it is quite remarkable that he remains so grounded through his popularity spike and just wants to focus on improving and learning what he can from the veterans. Other certain rookies could stand to learn from Beckham’s fine example.
Photo: Slate.com