Malik Nabers says Odell Beckham was the person who made him start watching football

Published September 5, 2026 01:31 PM Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers was an 8-year-old in Louisiana when Odell Beckham started playing wide receiver for LSU. Nabers was 11 when Beckham won the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award playing for the Giants. Nabers could only dream that he and Beckham would end up as teammates.Nabers credits Beckham for turning him into a football fan and making him want to be a wide receiver, and Nabers finds it amazing that he ended up playing for LSU, then the Giants, and now being Beckham’s teammate in 2026.“He kind of was the base person that literally made me start watching football,” Nabers said, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN. “The dances, the one-handers. And he was probably the first person I started really watching when I started playing football. He was the main person. So, just for him being here right now, in the same room as me, it’s surreal. Sometimes I got to take a moment, but to have him here is actually amazing.”Nabers is the Giants’ No. 1 receiver while Beckham is a backup, but Nabers still looks up to Beckham, as the player who blazed the career trail that Nabers followed.