As we all line up to take our shots at Giants receiver Odell Beckhamfor losing his cool amid Monday night's loss to the Vikings -- a display that should have gotten him booted from the game -- it's important to keep a level head about the situation.
A large part of what caused Beckham's outburst against the Vikings was also what makes him the player who awes us every week. The Giants have already realized that they cannot have it both ways, a sentiment that was summed up quite nicely in a tweet from NFL Network's Bucky Brooks on Tuesday morning.
NFL Network's Nate Burleson went in a different direction during Tuesday's edition of Good Morning Football, but he still came away with the same over-arching takeaway: This should be a harnessed power and not a target board for criticism.
"I was trying to give Odell credit for being over-passionate, and I'm okay with over-passionate because that's how I was as a player, but at some point you gotta reel it in," Burleson said. "At some point, you have to remove your heart and emotions from the game and just play with passion for the game. There's a big difference in being over-emotional and over-passionate."
It will be interesting to see what the Giants do from here. While there will no doubt be some closed-door meetings between head coach Ben McAdoo and Beckham this week, how they handle the situation publicly will be a different entity altogether.
Eli Manning, for one, said that Beckham needs to grow out of the mind frame that everyone is out to get him.
"He has got to be aware," Manning said. "They're looking for him, and he has got to play smart. We can't afford to do anything. They're going to call him, and he brought that on himself."
This is also the same Manning that was fine with just about everything, so long as Beckham is putting up 100 yards per game and multiple touchdowns.
And that is what we all have to remember this week. This is your franchise player, take him or leave him. He may grow out of it, he may not. Is he worth it?
