Odell Beckham, Jr., the free-agent, Super Bowl champion wide receiver who’s kept NFL fans and execs guessing about where—or if—he’ll play this season, is defending himself against accusations that he defied flight attendants’ orders before he was removed from a Miami-to-LA flight on Sunday.
Beckham, 30, had boarded an American Airlines Jet set for a roughly five-hour trip before he was put off the plane, escorted by Miami police officers. The Miami Police Department said they got a call from the airline about a possible medical emergency involving a passenger who was “coming in and out of consciousness” as flight crew tried to wake him up to buckle his seat belt for takeoff.
When cops showed up, they asked him to exit the plane several times but he refused, police said, so the entire plane had to be emptied so that Beckham could be taken off. The flight was then re-boarded without the star wideout and took off more than an hour after its scheduled time.
Beckham and his lawyer tell a drastically different story about what happened, claiming that Beckham was never in any abnormal state and that flight attendants were quick to assert their power by unnecessarily kicking the New Orleans native off the flight. Beckham isn’t facing any charges.
Beckham’s flight was already delayed and had pulled away from the gate, so the football star decided to catch a nap with his head under a blanket, the attorney, Daniel Davillier said in a statement. The next thing he knew, he was being sked to leave.
“He was awakened and told that the plane was back at the gate and that he needed to get off the plane because he did not put his seatbelt on when asked,” Davillier said in the statement. “The overzealous flight attendant refused to simply allow Mr. Beckham to fasten his seatbelt and proceed with the flight and instead immediately removed everyone from the plane. At no time was Mr. Beckham disruptive or combative.”
American Airlines released a statement that mirrored police’s story, that “flight 1228, with service from Miami (MIA) to Los Angeles (LAX), returned to the gate before takeoff due to a customer failing to follow crew member instructions and refusing to fasten their seatbelt. The customer was removed, and the flight re-departed at 10:54 a.m. local time.”
Beckham last played for the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI in February, a game in which he netted his first Super Bowl ring but also suffered a knee injury that required post-season surgery. Since he’s been a free agent who’s been courted by several teams and was most recently rumored to be pursued by the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants, the team that originally drafted him 12th overall in 2014.