Ridiculous, Crazy, Awesome. There were many words all acceptable when talking about the touchdown catch that Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. made early in the second quarter of Sunday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys. On a play that QB Eli Manning tossed the ball up 50 yards downfield Beckham did the impossible. As the ball descended from the air Beckham was already being held and tossed around by Dallas corner Brandon Carr. It seemed like the Giants were about to get the ball near the one due to obvious holding, but with his body arched and falling, Beckham put his hand way back behind his head and caught the ball with just a few fingers!! It was a touchdown for the Giants and the crowd bursted with excitement while still amazed by what just transpired. I myself almost fell off my chair when he snatched it out of mid-air. The 22-year old rookie just shocked the world.
Social media exploded and the video went viral immediately.
Victor Cruz shouted him out on twitter calling it the greatest catch he’s ever seen. Lebron James said,”Man I just witnessed the greatest catch possibly by Odell Beckham Jr! WOW!” Richard Sherman even shouted out the rookie by saying, “My goodness…that young man is bad!!!!”
NFL Nation went crazy for sure, but should we all be that shocked?
Beckham’s teammates weren’t surprised, neither was he. The first round wide receiver out of LSU even said he hopes it doesn’t go down as the best catch in history. Why?
“I’m happy people think so much of the catch but I hope it’s not the greatest catch of all time,” said the 22-year-old Beckham. “I hope I can make more like it.”
“It was the best catch I’ve ever seen but I can’t say it surprised me,” safety Antrel Rolle said. “Nothing surprises me with that guy anymore. For us, it’s a wow moment. For him, it’s another day in the park.”
Eli Manning did mention that he wasn’t surprised he was the one making the catch because he does it all the time in practice. He is pretty impressive during pregame so I can’t deny that one. I mean he even has his quarterback thinking he should purposely make it a hard grab when throwing his way now!
“Both of them were pretty spectacular,’’ Manning said. “I guess you’ve got to throw it just bad enough where they’ve got to make a great catch.’’
Coach Coughlin mentioned that he has seen #13 make some crazy catches, but nothing like the one he saw against the Cowboys.
“He’s got a gift, there’s no doubt. I’ve seen him make a lot of one-handed catches but none falling down, going away after being fouled and snagging it like that. And he did a great job staying in bounds.” said Tom Coughlin after the game.
The Giant’s emerging star finished with 10 catches for 146 yards and two touchdowns in the Giant’s loss, but at least left the fans something to cheer about going forward. Leaving them with possibly the greatest catch of all time…or one of, according to Beckham there may be more.
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Bobby O’Hara:PureSportsNY