Malik Nabers opens up about his relationship with Odell Beckham Jr, including a funny story about his childhood

During the 2014 NFL Draft, the New York Giants selected Odell Beckham Jr out of LSU with the 11th overall pick. Ten years later, the Giants made Malik Nabers the sixth overall pick, who also starred with the LSU Tigers.

Beckham quickly took the NFL by storm, winning Offensive Rookie of the Year while leading the Giants with 1,305 receiving yards to go with 12 touchdowns. Now, Nabers is expected to lead the Giants in receiving yards too, but he won’t have a Super Bowl winner like Eli Manning throwing him dots.

There are many parallels between OBJ and Nabers, and it sounds like the newest Giants star recognized it early on, even when he was a kid.

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Malik Nabers once DM’d Odell Beckham Jr in attempt to get football gloves

Malik Nabers just made his NFL preseason debut. Unfortunately, he was held catchless, and he didn’t even get a pass thrown his way during his very brief bit of playing time (12 snaps). He may have even taken a shot at New York Giants quarterback Drew Lock after the game.

Recently, he sat down with FanDuel’s Kay Adams, where Nabers shared a fascinating story about his childhood, where he once reached out to Odell Beckham Jr, when he was just 11 or 12 years old.

“When I was like 12 or 11 years old, I sent him a text message. I was like, my hands are too big to fit gloves. They would only put so many gloves in the academy, but I couldn’t fit them because my hands were too big. So I reached out to him cuz I heard he had big hands. I was like, bro I need some gloves.”

Malik Nabers on his interactions with Odell Beckham Jr

He later clarified that he sent Beckham a message on Instagram, but OBJ never responded. Until he got drafted. After Nabers landed with the Giants in the 2024 NFL Draft, Beckham finally responded, saying “It looks like you don’t need those gloves anymore.”

That’s a pretty cool story. It’s no surprise that Beckham didn’t respond to a young kid asking for some gloves. He was caught up in starring for the NFL. Yet, once Nabers proved himself as a football talent who became a top-ten pick, Beckham finally showed some respect to the star Giants receiver. Now Nabers has to do his best to follow in his fellow former LSU star’s footsteps in the Big Apple.

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