Odell Beckham Jr. Escorted Off Miami Flight, Attorney Calls Incident ‘Completely Unnecessary’

NFL player Odell Beckham Jr. was escorted off a flight from Miami to Los Angeles over the weekend, which American Airlines claimed was for failing “to follow crew member instructions and refusing to fasten their seatbelt.”

The airline and police reports also claim that Miami-Dade officers were called because they feared Beckham Jr. was ill and “his condition would worsen through the expected five-hour flight,” though this statement is receiving pushback from him.

Beckham Jr. is currently a free agent and most recently played with the Los Angeles Rams, who won the last Super Bowl. He and his attorney claim he wasn’t given a chance to put his seatbelt on after being suddenly woken up by a flight attendant. In what would have been minutes after the incident occurred on Saturday morning, Beckham Jr. fired off this tweet:

His attorney David Davillier also claimed that Beckham Jr. was sleeping with a blanket over his face because the flight had been delayed and had left his belt unfastened because of it. “The overzealous flight attendant refused to simply allow Mr. Beckham to fasten his seatbelt and proceed with the flight and instead immediately removed everyone from the plane,” Davillier said in part.

Davillier said that Beckham Jr. was never “disruptive or combative” during the exchange and accused the flight attendant of just wanting to flex their authority. “Sleeping on a plane should not be a cause for removal from a flight,” Davillier said.

It remains to be seen whether Beckham Jr. will respond to this legally or not. He may be too busy as a free agent currently, and it’s been reported that he is courting offers to return to the New York Giants but is also considering joining the Dallas Cowboys or Buffalo Bills.