After it came to light that Tennessee Titans defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons and Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. got into a postgame altercation following the Week 6 contest in London, Beckham touched on the subject on Wednesday.
It all started on a tackle attempt by Simmons on Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers, which Beckham thought was a dirty hit.
“I watched [Simmons] look at the play, then look at Zay’s legs and kind of dive on it,” Beckham said, per Ryan Mink and Clifton Brown of the team’s official site. “I just didn’t like that. I’m going to protect him. This is my guy. This is my little bro, love him to death. I’m going to always have his back, period. And if that leads me into trouble, it is what it is. I just didn’t like that.”
Odell Beckham Jr. was likely upset about how Jeffery Simmons unnecessarily dove at Zay Flowers’ legs herepic.twitter.com/2dvPakzLwH https://t.co/FZAFBfQtkt
— Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) October 15, 2023
So, Beckham decided to knee Simmons after the play, which led to Big Jeff shoving Beckham, who put on an Oscar-worthy performance to draw a flag from officials. OBJ was not flagged for his knee, though.
What we didn’t see was the postgame activities that saw Simmons wait for Beckham and the two get into an altercation that was revealed by Ravens cornerback, Marlon Humphrey, on his “Punch Line” podcast.
“I turn around, [OBJ and Simmons] are genuinely like fighting. I am pretty sure Odell is grabbing his facemask,” Humphrey explained. “They had to be separated and everything. I don’t know how this has not [been reported]. I mean, [Simmons] is crazy. He wanted that fade from Odell.”
Beckham indicated he thinks Simmons, who signed a $94 million deal this past offseason and is considered one of the best players at his position in the NFL, was trying to make a name for himself with the fight.
“People understand that my name holds the weight,” he said, per ESPN’s Jamison Hensley. “They try and do things to come up off that. I got to the point where I realized that and you just can’t let people capitalize. There’s nothing really to talk about.”
After Beckham spoke to the media, Simmons called cap (lie) on social media and said “don’t believe the hype,” although it isn’t clear what exactly he was referring to, whether that was the fight itself, Beckham’s comments, or something else entirely.
😂🧢 don’t believe the hype.
— Jeffery Simmons (@GrindSimmons94) October 18, 2023
Thankfully, Ravens players called for security to help break it up, otherwise it might have gone really badly for OBJ. I can assure him, Simmons wasn’t looking for more notoriety, he just wanted that smoke.
