The moment that Odell Beckham Jr. gruesomely fractured his left ankle on Sunday could become a watershed moment in both the future of the Giants' franchise and of Beckham's promising but shockingly-stalled career.
Beckham, 24, screaming and crying tears of pain, was carted off the field and is likely destined for surgery after buckling under a fourth-quarter tackle by Chargers DB Casey Hayward.
Right when Beckham hit the ground, Chargers players waived furiously toward the Giants sideline for trainers. Players on both teams dropped to their knees in prayer. And Beckham's good friend Brad Wing, the Giants' punter, said the only words he could to Beckham as the receiver departed in agony.
"Just that I loved him," a somber Wing said.
Beckham, with a boot over his lower left leg and crutches, was driven out of the darkness of MetLife Stadium's bowels toward the outside light, with his doting mother in a "Momma OBJ" jersey following nervously close behind. And at that moment, Beckham and the Giants (0-5) lost much more than any remaining sliver of hope for their season.
Beckham lost any certainty about whether he will be able to recover fully to be the same electric talent he was in his first three NFL seasons. And he therefore may have lost a great deal of leverage in negotiations on the long-term contract he hopes to sign with the Giants.
The Giants, meanwhile, lost the only player transcendent enough to guarantee fans continue showing up in December if this team continues tumbling into the NFL's abyss. The Giants also must have a looser grasp now on how and whether to build around Beckham from here.
"That's rough," corner Eli Apple said. "He's our best player. He's a brother. He's somebody we really care about."
Beckham incredibly is making only $1.8 million guaranteed in this fourth NFL season, which explains why he skipped OTAs this past spring to push the Giants toward talking about a new deal.
He signed a landmark five-year extension with Nike in May for an endorsement deal worth more than $29 million. And he is due to make $8.4 million next season on the fifth-and-final-year option the Giants picked up in the spring. But his and the Giants' dilemma from here is how to place a price tag on what he'll mean to the Giants in 2019 and beyond.
That is impossible to do immediately, and management's primary focus right now has to be finding bodies to employ at receiver with Beckham, Harris (fractured foot), Brandon Marshall (left ankle) and Sterling Shepard (left ankle) all hurt.
So don't be surprised if former Giant Tavarres King and former Giant practice squadder Darius Powe get phone calls. Terrell Owens of course had to weigh in on Sunday that he's willing to help. And Victor Cruz, the chaperone of January's boat trip to Miami, would have been a logical replacement, except he set fire to all bridges leading back to East Rutherford when he publicly accused the Giants of freezing him out last season when the fact was he just wasn't open very often.
But those are conversations happening upstairs. Downstairs, just outside the locker room, the look on Ben McAdoo's face was one of a beaten man.
McAdoo said last week that he didn't want his players going "numb" after constant losing. But after Beckham's ankle fractured and the Giants lost, 27-22, to the previously-winless Chargers, the head coach was the one who looked completely numb at the podium.
"All right, another tough ballgame," McAdoo began, in an emotionless post-mortem so routine he must have it memorized. He was morose because he lost a game, but he was stunned because he lost his best player. It felt, for Game of Thrones fans out there, like the Giants' own personal Red Wedding.
And the momentum palpably changed for good when Beckham got hurt. On the very next play, Melvin Ingram unsurprisingly strip-sacked Manning and recovered, beating right guard D.J. Fluker on a stunt. And it's sorry to say that it then felt inevitable the Giant defense would surrender the go-ahead touchdown.
Beckham seemingly was on his way to saving the game and any chance of a meaningful season, too, in typically dramatic fashion.
With just two touches for a combined 21 yards in the third quarter, Beckham appeared to be wiping tears away from his face with a towel on the sideline as Wing grabbed his shoulder pads from behind and counseled him. CBS reported that Beckham's right index finger, dislocated the previous week, had been hurting him since pregame.
"I was just telling him how great he was and how important he was to this team, how if we're going to win we need him and that I need him," Wing said. "That's all I do is motivation. He does the same for me."
On the next drive, Beckham made three catches for 36 yards to set up a Roger Lewis touchdown and give the Giants a 16-10 lead. And then Beckham caught a 48-yard touchdown pass from Manning for a 22-17 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Beckham celebrated his TD by placing the football on the field and giving it CPR. It felt for a fleeting moment as if he could be reviving the Giants.
But in reality, it is likely the last catch he will make as a Giant for a long time.
