Those who believe the Giants finally ending their five-year playoff drought and looking ahead to a postseason clash with the Packers is cause for celebration should know they are kindred spirits with Odell Beckham Jr., Victor Cruz and other Giants receivers. That group certainly showed it knows how to party long and hard — and they did it with none other than Justin Bieber.
Beckham, Cruz, Sterling Shepard and Roger Lewis partied through the night at Liv night club in Miami Beach, with Bieber, Johnny Manziel and rappers Trey Songz, Lil Wayne and Fabolous on hand, according to TMZ and various social media posts.
The players were all in Landover, Md., for Sunday night’s 19-10 victory over the Redskins and traveled back with the team by train to the Giants’ practice and training center at the Meadowlands. The Party Pack then jetted to Miami for an evening of entertainment that spilled over into the early morning.
Beckham was featured on Bieber’s Instagram account, dancing and acknowledging the camera while the singer yells out “Happy New Year!” The Giants spent Monday morning sunbathing shirtless with Songz on a yacht.
Traditionally, NFL players are off on Tuesdays, but the new schedule instituted this season by first-year coach Ben McAdoo has the Giants off-day as Monday. The players must report back to work at the team facility Tuesday morning, when preparation will begin for Sunday’s NFC Wild-Card playoff game against the Packers at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOxfNnFATBo/?taken-by=justnbieber&hl=en
If the Miami party crew is back at work Tuesday ready to roll, it is hard to figure how anyone could have an issue with players basking in the afterglow of a victory and the start of a playoff adventure with a night out in South Beach. But optics being what they are, if things go awry for Beckham, Cruz or the other receivers this weekend, there will be second-guessing about how they spent their time six days before a playoff game.
“Players are off until [Tuesday] morning, we’ll see ’em [Tuesday] morning, they’ll get their workout in and we’ll be ready for Green Bay,’’ McAdoo said when asked Monday about the trip to Miami by his players.
Pressed on whether there will be any disciplinary action taken by the team, McAdoo sounded incredulous.
“The players are off, they are not working,’’ he said.
The Giants and their fans should know how this works. They were on the other end of it in early 2008 when Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and tight end Jason Witten created a stir when they took off on their playoff bye week to a vacation in Cabo, Mexico, along with Jessica Simpson, Romo’s girlfriend at the time. The Giants upset the No. 1 seed Cowboys 21-17 at Texas Stadium in an NFC divisional round game.
Cruz, 30, is the veteran of the receivers group that partied in Miami. Shepard and Lewis are rookies. Beckham, 24, is no stranger to mixing with the rich and famous. Beckham did not finish up the regular season with a big game against the Redskins (five receptions for 44 yards) but he gained comportment points for not engaging with Redskins cornerback Josh Norman, who was called for two penalties trying to instigate something with Beckham, who often says he feels as if he is too heavily scrutinized, on and off the field.
“If I sneeze wrong, it might be a problem so I felt like I just did a good job of just coming out and playing football and trusting coach and his decisions,’’ Beckham said after the game and before heading south to party.