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The biggest story coming out of Sunday’s slate of NFL games was Odell Beckham Jr.’s conduct during the New York Giants 38-35 loss to the Carolina Panthers, in which he committed three personal fouls and faces a possible one-game suspension for a deliberate helmet-to-helmet hit against Josh Norman.

As you might expect, Mike Francesa had some definite thoughts on Beckham’s behavior and the Giants’ organization allowing him to continue playing in the game in light of his actions. In Francesa’s view, this is a pattern of enabling a player because of his talent and the more he talks about the situation, the more he gets worked up about it.

“I hate the behavior of these players now, and I have been on Beckham many times this year about the stuff that’s going on. And what I have seen in the last couple of games — the wagging of the tongue, the nonsense in the end zone, the me me me stuff — to me, it all boiled over yesterday in one of the worst, WORST performances and completely me, self-aggrandizing, nonsensical, just dangerous at times performance by Beckham yesterday. 

“Here’s a case of a player who just has gotten so big, so fast while his team has won absolutely nothing, which is what you detest about what goes on in sports now. All you have to do is make it about you now in this world of video and fantasy and statistics — it doesn’t even matter if your team wins. In the old days, your team had to win before you got the spoils. Now, you get the spoils when your team is lousy. And he’s played on a second straight bad team.” 

And that is only the very beginning. Francesa goes on for another 10 minutes about Beckham and how the Giants’ front office and coaching staff is so “afraid of his talent” that they won’t discipline him. Comparing it to how the team enabled Jeremy Shockey, Francesa thinks a talented career is on the way to ruin because this behavior is allowed.

Here’s the full segment, via @RNs_Funhouse:

Update, July 2021: This clip has been taken down.

Francesa was hardly done with Beckham, by the way. Apparently, he is still going on about him and the Giants as we write this. He might still be going after you read this and his show is over for the day.

About Ian Casselberry

Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.