Odell Beckham Jr. Says He Did 'Nothing Wrong' in 2022 Incident When He Was Escorted Off Plane

NEED TO KNOW

• Odell Beckham Jr. is revisiting the November 2022 incident in which he was escorted off a plane
• The NFL free agent told Haute Living magazine that "I did absolutely nothing but fall asleep, nothing wrong."
• Body cam footage of the episode showed Beckham interacting with passengers, who were upset that they had to deplane

Odell Beckham Jr. is shedding more light onto an incident in which he was escorted off a plane.

“I bought a first-class seat on a specific flight to get home and see my son,” Beckham, 32, told Haute Living magazine on Thursday, July 17 about the November 2022 episode. “I was one of the first people to board. The flight gets delayed for an hour while we’re sitting there, so I just go to sleep, like anybody else would do, and then I’m woken up — an hour and 20 minutes later — thinking I’m waking up to us landing in California, to nine officers surrounding me.”

Beckham was removed from a Los Angeles-bound plane after the flight crew declared a medical emergency as the plane was taxiing for takeoff in Miami, over concerns that Beckham was unconscious. According to the Miami-Dade Police Department at the time, Beckham "refused to comply with safety protocol."

“They said, ‘Basically, you have to get off this flight,’ ” Beckham recalled. “I was just trying to ask the question as to why I was being removed from a flight where I did absolutely nothing but fall asleep, nothing wrong. They said I was unconscious, refusing to put my seatbelt on which makes no sense. If I was unconscious, how would I refuse anything?”

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Body cam footage from the police department, which was shared by local Miami news station WPLG Local 10 and verified to be authentic by PEOPLE at the time, showed police entering the plane and approaching Beckham during the November 27, 2022 incident.

The wide receiver was asked to leave the plane, but refused, officers said. When one officer told Beckham the crew would have "deplane everyone" from the aircraft, including him, if he continued to refuse, he responded, "That's fine."

"The flight crew was concerned for a passenger [Mr. Odell Beckham], as they tried to wake him to fasten his seat belt, he appeared to be coming in and out of consciousness, prior to their departure," Det. Argemis "AC" Colome told PEOPLE at the time. "Fearing that Mr. Beckham was seriously ill, and that his condition would worsen through the expected 5 hour flight, the attendants called for police and fire rescue. Upon the officers' arrival, the flight crew asked Mr. Beckham several times to exit the aircraft, which he refused."

Colome said the aircraft was then deplaned, "at which time Mr. Beckham was asked by the officers to exit the plane, and did so without incident."

As other passengers walked off the plane, several expressed their frustration to Beckham. The veteran NFL star — who was released by the Miami Dolphins in December — told Haute Living that in the moment, he was expressing his own frustration at the situation.

“That’s where you see me talking s--- to this guy,” he said. “But people don’t know that part. They just see me yelling. They think I’m trying to be seen. But at the time, I was like, ‘F---, my day is literally about to be ruined. I’m not going to get to see my son. There are no more flights to get me back home to see him. But then, I’m the headline. Odell Beckham Jr. causes a scene. It doesn’t make sense.”

Beckham added, looking back: “I let my emotions get the best of me. I was definitely hot.”

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