Odell Beckham Jr.: No regrets about ESPN interview

Odell Beckham Jr. said Sunday night that he had no regrets about the explosive comments he made in his interview on ESPN with Josina Anderson.

“I don’t regret anything, I don’t regret anything that I said. If it took that for us to come together as a team like we did today, I can take that every single time,” Beckham said. “I spoke to the team just to kind of relay the message that sometimes stuff comes off the wrong way. Words can be portrayed in any kind of light. The conversation is between us. But the way we responded as a team to what was said, I felt like it would’ve been too easy after what was said, and after what I said to them for us to come in here and have heart, energy and all that stuff. Grit, whatever the words you want to use for that. We had it today, and we came up short, but I’m proud of this team, and this is the team that we are going to be for the rest of the season.

“Like I said, if it took that to get us going, I can take that. I’m trying to be a leader, I’m in a position I’ve never been in. I’m trying to grow, I’m learning on the way, on the fly, but I’m proud of where we went today.”

Here is some of what Beckham said in his interview with Anderson.

Sitting next to L’il Wayne, Beckham had this to say about Eli Manning.

He was asked, do you have an issue at quarterback?

“Uh … I don’t know.

“Like I said, I feel like he’s not going to get out the pocket. He’s not -- we know Eli’s not running it. But is it a matter of time issue? Can he still throw it, yeah, but it’s been pretty safe and it’s been, you know ... cool catching shallow [routes] and trying to take it to the house. But I’m, you know, I want to go over the top of somebody.”

How about his coaches, including the current one who has gone out of his way to build a working relationship with Beckham?

“I feel like in the past five years, they found a way to run a Cover 2, keep everything in front, and that’s how they played me,” Beckham said. “And there’s no way to -- how do we beat this? I feel like I’m being out-schemed, and then I also don’t have a chance to, like, do something where I’ve got to take a slant and go 60. And not to say that’s not fun, but it’s like I want some easy touchdowns too. I watch everybody across the league. All the top receivers get the ball the way that they, you know, should. And if they don’t, they say something about it.”

There was also this:

“I just want to be the very best that I can and I don’t feel like I’m given an opportunity to be the very best that I can, to bring that every single day. That’s really all I want to do is bring that every single day. I don’t want to be held back anymore.

“Since I’ve been here, yeah, I put up numbers and records have been broken and all those good things, which, not to say they mean nothing to me but I know they could have been double or triple whatever they are now. That’s the part that bothers me. I want to win. I want to be great at what I do.”

”I haven’t been in this situation. I haven’t been in the place where I felt like I could really go out and do everything that I’m capable of doing. I don’t get 20 targets like some other receivers, you know.”

What is holding him back?

“At the moment it’s just everything. Not to say that it’s not gonna work but at the moment I feel like I work entirely way too hard.”

Shurmur was apparently “absolutely livid” and made Beckham apologize to his teammates.