Marlon Humphrey buries the hatchet with new teammate

Marlon Humphrey buries the hatchet with new teammate

Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey seems happy to let bygones be bygones with new teammate Odell Beckham Jr.

The free-agent wide receiver and Baltimore have reached an agreement on a one-year contract for the 2023 season, the NFL team announced on Sunday night.

MORE NFL:

· LIONS ‘STARGAZING’ AT EXPLOSIVE JAMESON WILLIAMS

· AL.COM NFL MOCK DRAFT 2: TRADES WILL SHAKE UP THE FIRST ROUND

· JERRY JONES TO PRESENT DEMARCUS WARE FOR HALL OF FAME ENSHRINEMENT

After the news broke, Humphrey tweeted: “Want to be best friends and win a Super Bowl? Let’s get it,” tying it to a March 20 tweet in which he wrote: “OBJ looks like a Raven to me is all I’m saying.”

Beckham played parts of three seasons with the Cleveland Browns, one of the Ravens’ AFC North rivals.

In the Baltimore-Cleveland game on Sept. 29, 2019, Beckham and Humphrey got into a scrap on the field with about three-and-half minutes remaining in the third quarter. With Beckham blocking against Humphrey and the players locked up, the wide receiver took a poke at the defensive back’s head, and the pair ended up on the turf, with Humphrey seeming to keep Beckham down with a choke hold.

After the officials broke up the tussle, each player received a penalty, as did Cleveland center J.C. Tretter and Baltimore linebacker Kenny Young. But no players were ejected after the scuffle.

Beckham had been thrown to five times, but he did not have a reception at that point in the game.

After the game, Humphrey ran over to Beckham to apologize for what happened.

“It’s not really the brand of football I really want to represent,” Humphrey told reporters after the game. “The whistle blows, it’s got to be over with. It got my team a flag, so it’s never good when you’re getting a flag. Like I said, it’s not the brand I want to represent, so I was happy I was able to talk to him after the game.”

The wide receiver told reporters he was just sorry he’d lost an earring in the incident.

“It’s hot out there,” Beckham said. “We’re just competing. I’m just upset that I lost my earring.”

But Cleveland coach Freddie Kitchens wondered after the game why Humphrey hadn’t been disqualified for choking one of his players.

That prompted the Ravens’ official website to post a story that used slow-motion video in support of its assertions that Beckham “definitely punched Marlon Humphrey – also grabbing the cornerback’s facemask, attempting a sweeping leg kick and pulling him to the ground,” while Humphrey “did what he’s coached to do: protect himself, all while holding on to Beckham’s jersey the entire time.”

By the end of the week, Beckham was saying he would have gotten fined a lot more than he had been if he’d done what he wanted to do to Humphey.

The NFL fined Beckham and Humphrey $14,037 apiece, which was the standard fine for unsportsmanlike conduct for a first-time offender that season.

“I’m not saying I regret letting the moment pass,” Beckham said. “I’ve come a long way, like I said. I probably would have been suspended for the next game if I would have done what I wanted to do — or more knowing how I get treated — so it just was something I had to look for my teammates and not hurt them even more than the 15-yard penalty and be sitting out a whole ‘nother game.”

A three-time Pro Bowler who has five 1,000-yard receiving seasons, Beckham has not played since catching two passes for 52 yards and one touchdown in the Los Angeles Rams’ 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI to cap the 2021 NFL season.

Beckham sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in that game and missed the entire 2022 season.

The Ravens can open their offseason program on April 17.

RELATED: ALABAMA’S NFL SINGLE-SEASON BESTS FROM DON HUTSON TO MAC JONES

Before the NFL, Humphrey was a three-time All-State football player at Hoover High School, and the Buccaneers captured the AHSAA Class 6A football titles in 2012 and 2013. Humphrey also won six individual state track championships with the Buccaneers.

Humphrey played on Alabama’s CFP national championship team for the 2015 season and was a first-team All-American selection by the Football Writers Association of America for the 2016 season before he entered the NFL as the 16th player picked in the 2017 draft.

With the Ravens, Humphrey has earned Pro Bowl recognition in the 2019, 2020 and 2022 seasons and was a first-team All-Pro selection by The Associated Press in 2019.

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.