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#pounditFriday, March 29, 2024

Odell Beckham says he contemplated retirement after breaking ankle in 2017

Odell Beckham Jr

Odell Beckham Jr has dealt with a number of injuries throughout his career, the most notable of which was a broken ankle he suffered in 2017. In addition to forcing him to miss all but four games that season, the injury apparently led Beckham to contemplate retirement.

Beckham spoke about the 2017 injury during a roundtable discussion with Cam Newton, Todd Gurley and former teammate Victor Cruz this week. The star receiver said he lost some of his love for the game after breaking his ankle and thought about calling it quits.

“I said this in college, I said, ‘I fear the day that they make this game a business and not what I love,'” Beckham said, via Rob Golberg of Bleacher Report. “And when I seen that for the first time after breaking my ankle, like I thought about not playing no more, like this is not really it for me because they’ve ruined the game of football for me a little bit.”

Beckham says it was the fans — particularly the young ones — that kept him going during the tough time.

“When I be on the sideline and that little kid is, ‘Do the whip, dance,’ like that s— is what fueled me,” he said. “That’s what fueled me.”

New York is a difficult place to play for any professional athlete, and it’s no secret Beckham struggled with that when he was with the Giants. He made references during the roundtable discussion to people criticizing him when he plays well and when he struggles, but we doubt he truly came close to calling it a career at age 24.

Beckham also played through an injury all of last year, but he is said to be fully recovered heading into 2020.

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