Young Jalin Hyatt was watching Cowboys-Giants on television back on Nov. 23, 2014.
“When he made that catch, it was one of the craziest catches I ever seen, obviously,” Hyatt recalled. “I was with my family, and we were all shocked seeing it. It’s just crazy how long it’s been, but definitely one of the craziest catches I ever seen for sure.”
It was the primetime Sunday night game when a Giants rookie named Odell Beckham Jr. went way up and reached way back and backpedaled for a three-fingered, 43-yard TD pass from Eli Manning at a disbelieving MetLife Stadium.
It changed everything for Beckham, and it changed everything for young receivers with big dreams such as Hyatt, drafted in the third round by the Giants out of Tennessee in 2023.
“Me and my brother go to the field and we’ll try to do the one-hand, I remember being at practice in high school trying to catch everything one hand, my right and my left, trying to be like him,” Hyatt told The Post.
The play-by-play sheet would read:
1st & 10 at DAL 43
(14:52 — 2nd) E.Manning pass deep right to O.Beckham for 43 yards, TOUCHDOWN. Penalty on DAL-B.Carr, Defensive Pass Interference, declined. The Replay Official challenged the pass completion ruling, and the play was Upheld. The ruling on the field was confirmed. J.Brown extra point is GOOD, Center-Z.DeOssie, Holder-S.Weatherford.
It gave the Tom Coughlin Giants a 14-3 lead in a game they would lose 31-28 and fall to 3-8.
“I just was like, ‘Did that, like, really happen?’ ” Wan’Dale Robinson told The Post. “I was probably middle school, just starting high school around then 10 years ago. It was definitely like ‘What in the world?’ and then showing up to school the next day everybody talking about it, ‘Did you see the catch?’ Now anytime anybody reaches back with one hand, it’s like ‘Oh yeah, you’re Odelling it.’ He definitely started a little trend with that.”
Giants rookie RB Tyrone Tracy Jr., a WR at Iowa and Purdue, wasn’t watching it live. “After it happened, I saw it on social media and all that stuff,” Tracy Jr. said. “After I saw it, it was really like, ‘Did he actually catch it?’ And then you started looking at the replays and the slow-motion like, ‘OK, he caught it, not only did he catch it, he caught it three fingers!’ That’s a once-in-a-lifetime catch, man. I don’t think we’ve ever seen a catch like that, and it’s gonna be really, really hard to replicate a catch like that.”
The Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb and Giants star rookie Malik Nabers couldn’t wait to strut their stuff when the rivals met at MetLife Stadium on Thursday night, although an OBJ catch 10 years later was almost certainly too much to ask of either of them.
“Obviously an electric play, something that kinda changed the trajectory of his career,” Bronx-born Giants TE Chris Manhertz told The Post. “That’s even a highlight reel that’s still played today. But from what I recall, it was an awesome play that was made on national television, and the whole world was watching.”
Immediately after the catch, NBC’s Cris Collinsworth gushed: “That may be the greatest catch I’ve ever seen! You have to be kidding me. That is impossible. That is absolutely impossible what he just did.”
At 9:05, LeBron James tweeted:
“Man I just witnessed the greatest catch ever possibly by Odell Beckham Jr! WOW!!!!”
Giants fans and media began debating whether the iconic catch outdid David Tyree’s Helmet Catch in Super Bowl XLII. Athletically yes, historically no.
“He’s got a gift — there’s no doubt,” Coughlin said afterwards. “I’ve seen him make a lot of one-handed catches, to be honest with you. But none falling down like that, going away and being able to snatch the ball like that and then stay in bounds after being fouled.”
Beckham finished with 10 catches for 146 yards and 2 TDs.
“He practices that one-handed snag,” Manning said afterwards. “He’s got big hands and great concentration, and he can make those plays. That was a pretty great one.”
Life was never the same for Beckham. There was the infamous Boat Trip and a hostile skirmish with Panthers CB Josh Norman and mimicking a dog urinating in the end zone and this and that until GM Dave Gettleman unloaded him to Cleveland. Nabers should use it as a lesson in how to handle the trappings of celebrity.
“I didn’t know that lightning struck,” Beckham told James Corden. “I didn’t know that my life would forever be changed. I didn’t know the magnitude of the moment.”
Ten years later, it remains his legacy.