CBS sideline reporter Jay Feely reported in the first half of the Broncos-Browns game that Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry were being threatened by the league of being pulled from the game in the second half if they did not change their cleats.
Beckham initially wore “Joker’’ cleats while Landry rocked a gold-painted pair of cleats.
Following the game, Odell spoke up on the topic and stated the Browns decided on Wednesday or Thursday to go with their color rush unis, and that left him with no kicks.
“To be honest, obviously you guys know I have a deal with Nike,’’ Beckham said after the game. “I really wasn’t going to say nothing, but if I don’t say something then it’s just going to be used against me. I have a deal with Nike. We were supposed to wear white jerseys this week. In the offseason, before the season even starts, in June and July, we sit down, we map out the cleats, this is it, bam, this is the jersey you’re going to wear, cool.’’
“I had none I could have wore and the black ones that I was wearing for the rest of the game, for some reason, were hurting my feet, so I went to the ones that were most comfortable,’’ he said. “I’m pretty sure that they changed the rule and cleats weren’t a big deal. It’s only a big deal to the people who are talking about it. When I have cleats on my feet they could be hot pink, lime green, it’s never going to effect me, it’s not something I worry about while I’m running routes, reading coverages and trying to win a game, so it was just tough. They literally switched the jerseys so the cleats that I had were not for that jersey, we were supposed to wear white, the cleats were white, I just had to go with whatever was most comfortable to play in.’’
Beckham felt like he was being targeted.
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“You’ve just got to know your situation, know who you are, where you are and know they’re going to tell us to take them off, regardless, even though, you know, I’ve seen people in cleats that are completely different color from their team and they can wear them all game, on a primetime game,’’ he said. “For some reason, when it comes to me, it’s not the case. Like I said, I have a deal that the cleats from July. …they just switched it at the last minute so I didn’t have anything to wear.’’
Landry felt the exact same way.
“I don’t really understand it,’’ he said. “When we went up to the Nike headquarters to start game planning for the season, for our uniforms and things like that, these things got cleared by the league before Nike could start processing the shoe. So, Nike processed the shoe thinking they had the green light from the NFL, so I didn’t see it being a problem or distraction to anybody.
