Odell Beckham Jr. remembers being overlooked, but he isn't anymore

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It's hard to remember a time when Odell Beckham Jr. was being overlooked, but Beckham remembers it.

"When I was coming into the league, people were talking about Sammy Watkins and a lot of the other guys in my draft class, and I thought, 'I want to be talked about like that. How come no one's talking about me?'" the star wide receiver said with a smile after New York Giants minicamp practice Tuesday. "Now I look back and think, 'Careful what you wish for.'"

Beckham is coming off an offseason in which he was connected in the celebrity pages with Drake and Khloe Kardashian. His every move is gossip fodder, it seems. And while he spoke Tuesday of the practice field being his "sanctuary," he definitely seems to relish the attention.

"It just comes with the territory," he said. "I feel like I could hide under a rock for 364 days, and then the one day I come out, it's going to be a story. People just need something to talk about sometimes, so ..."

Then he waved and smiled and said, "How ya doing?"

Beckham did say he hates that off-the-field issues could be a distraction for his team and that a lot of what's written about him isn't true. But if it's wearing on the Giants at all, they certainly don't show it.

"I'm 35, he's [23], so that's the reason I'm staying off Page Six and he's on it," quarterback Eli Manning said, referring to the New York Post's gossip section. "I enjoy reading it, though. It gives me some good material."