*Odell Beckham Jr. has signed a five-year re-up with the New York Giants that gives him a new title: the highest-paid wide receiver in football.
ESPN.com has the details:
The three-time Pro Bowler can receive a maximum $95 million over the course of the deal ($90 million base value plus $5 million in incentives), with $65 million in total guaranteed money, a source told ESPN’s Josina Anderson, including $41 million fully guaranteed at signing.
Over the first three years of the deal, Beckham will be paid $60 million for an average of $20 million a year over that earlier term. This means the new money average of the extension is $18 million a year over the five years, but his total average over the entire deal is $16.4 million a year over six years, which includes his previous option year (for this season).
OBJ’s deal eclipses those of his competitors. Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown gets $17 million per year average and Tampa Bay Buccaneers wideout Mike Evans earns $55 million in total guarantees.
In other NFL receiver news, Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald will be one of six speakers and one of three athletes participating in Sen. John McCain’s memorial service in Phoenix on Thursday.
Fitzgerald was asked a couple of months ago by the senator’s widow, Cindy McCain, following a visit to the McCain ranch in Cornville, Arizona, about 20 miles south of Sedona.
Fitzgerald told ESPN on Monday before his annual Fitz’s Supper Club fundraiser at Dominick’s Steakhouse in Scottsdale that he was initially “really taken aback” by the request but readily accepted.
“It’s truly one of the greatest honors of my life to be able to talk about somebody who served his country so passionately and had been so dedicated to policies of this nation,” Fitzgerald said. “So, I was really taken aback by it.”
Former Diamondbacks outfielder Luis Gonzalez and former Coyotes forward Shane Doan will serve as pallbearers. All three athletes were close friends of McCain, who died Saturday at age 81.
Rest in peace to an American hero, statesman, servant of the people, and dear friend. Godspeed Senator McCain. My prayers for Cindy and the beautiful McCain family. pic.twitter.com/Tj87Hb8MtY
— Larry Fitzgerald (@LarryFitzgerald) August 26, 2018
Fitzgerald will give his tribute to McCain before that of former Vice President Joe Biden, according to the ceremony’s official schedule. The receive will have a five to six-minute time limit for his speech, which he said will make it tough to fit in everything he wants to say about McCain.
“Fortunately, I’ve had some time to get prepared and put some of my thoughts on paper,” Fitzgerald said. “I’ve had to kind of shorten it down. You have a short window. It’s tough to be able to get everything you want to say. How do you accurately be able to give somebody their due justice who served the United States for 60-plus years, I mean dedicated his entire life.
“You think about those 60-plus years and everything he’s done from his time served as a POW to all the years in the senate, the things he’s done her for the great state of Arizona — and to be able to do that in five or six minutes is extremely difficult. I’m going to do the best I can and try to honor him for the wonderful man that he is.”
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