Inside Odell Beckham Jr's Catch

You put your toe in the pool with a quick dunk before, as if by reflex, pulling it out. Then you sit and dangle your foot, as if trying to catch the too-cold water by surprise. This is a process.

Odell Beckham Jr. never was afforded time to acclimate to the sudden shock to his system, never blessed with the opportunity to pause before he was launched into the deep end. He never got to get his feet wet.

“No, not really,’’ Beckham, in a reflective moment, told The Post.

Beckham then lifted his right arm up and lowered it, pantomiming a diver leaping from the high board and descending.

“Splash,’’ he said, chuckling.

Splash indeed.

The impact rose past ripples and swells for a full-fledged cannonball effect, dousing the Giants and the NFL with a tidal wave of all Beckham, all the time. He set rookie receiving records, enlivened (for a time) an ebbing Giants season, and became a national sensation with his one-of-a-kind, one-handed, video-game touchdown catch in Week 12 against the Cowboys — a play so outrageous, it caught the attention and admiration of LeBron James.

All it did was change his life.

“It’s not the same,’’ Beckham, who somehow is just 22 years old (he doesn’t turn 23 until Nov. 5), said recently. “Things are just different now. I can’t do all the things that I used to be able to do. Or it’s not that I can’t do ’em, it’s that they don’t go unnoticed anymore. It’s just a lot more on you.’’

This came quickly.

“It did,’’ he said.

Too quickly?

“I wouldn’t say it’s a weight,’’ Beckham said. “I would just say sometimes it’s a lot to deal with. A lot more than people would imagine. They think it’s … it’s just a lot to do, what I’m going through right now and what I’m doing right now. It just takes a lot of mental strength to be able to endure all of this.’’

Interesting choice of words there from Beckham, because to endure is to experience or deal with something painful or unpleasant, and why in the world would near-instant stardom be so vexing?

Beckham has not been on the scene very long, but it already is clear he is not a let-it-roll-off-his-back kind of guy. He can hit the autopilot button and offer up programmed responses, but he also is capable of introspection that belies his youth. In March — after his Offensive Rookie of the Year season, after the first of what could be multiple Pro Bowls — Beckham was in deep-thought mode as he posted a series of tweets that more than hinted at strains to his psyche.

When his Twitter musings were mentioned to him three months later, Beckham said, “I don’t remember them right now, probably just ranting.’’ But as his own words were read back to him, Beckham nodded knowingly, at times saying “right, right’’ as his memory was jarred into familiarity.

So, what gives?

“That’s just real-life stuff that just happens every day,’’ Beckham said. “Sometimes people take your kindness for weakness. You don’t want to speak up or speak out on a situation, and you think it’s going to be OK or acceptable to do every single time until you actually say something. Sometimes it’s almost my way of taking notes. Same as if it would have been in my notes and no one saw it. I just decided to tweet it. They’re out there, and they can take it for better or worse or mix it however they want or read in between the lines however they want. That’s probably why I said some of those things, but it’s nothing bad. It’s just stuff I think about daily.’’

This take-it-to-heart persona can be overwhelming to Beckham when he is unable to get on the field and work his magic. It hit him hard in his first NFL spring and summer, when he was laid up with a serious left hamstring injury that cost him all of training camp and the first four regular-season games. Looking back on that time, he wrote on his website, “People thought I was some pretty boy that didn’t want to play … like I was a show pony.’’

It hit him hard this past spring, when a right hamstring strain again put him on the sideline — his health will be an early storyline when the Giants report for training camp on Thursday — and hisannoyance hearing ribbing from teammates bubbled over to make him appear thin-skinned. Heck, even Eli Manning — not exactly Mr. Tough Love — said Odellhas to take it like a man.

“You’re not practicing, and people are going to get on you a little bit,’’ Manning said.

The spotlight may be burdensome, but Beckham has chosen to surround himself with the trappings of celebrity. He posed naked for ESPN the Magazine’s Body issue, his left thigh crossing to cover his private parts as he reached back with his left hand to haul in the football — his very exposed hamstrings looked fine. He has his own line of Odell Beckham Jr. official gear, selling three ladies headbands in a bundle for $14.99, and “The Catch’’ New York hoodie for $59.99. Much of the merchandise features the silhouette logo of his now-famous catch.

He profits from The Catch, though there are times he sounds as if he wants to distance himself from the hubbub it created.

“No, I don’t think I ever want to take away that moment from my life,’’ Beckham said, “but it’s just unfortunate sometimes that’s all that you’re remembered for. But, I mean, it’s better than being not remembered.

“It’s a mixed blessing. I think all blessings are mixed in a way. It’s a ‘you give something to get something’ sort of thing. It’s definitely great, I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but it’s just that sometimes it gets to be a little much.’’

At an autograph signing on Long Island, Beckham wore a black, wide-brimmed fedora (adorned with white stars) and, in teenager appendage fashion, never once took off his backpack, forcing him to sit forward in his seat for the entire two-hour session. He started off stone-faced, barely interacting with fans paying $109 for a signature on “flats’’ and $119 for a signature on “equipment,’’ unexcited about glancing up for pictures with those who wore his No. 13 Giants jersey. Gradually, his spirit softened and he lightened his mood and by the end, perhaps relieved it was over, he was grinning and posing.

At a charity softball game, Beckham fired an overhand pitch from the mound at a minor league stadium and caused a social media frenzy about the life in his right arm.

“What is he not good at?’’ punter Steve Weatherford tweeted.

There’s a lot there.

“It gets tough sometimes,’’ Beckham said, “but that’s why you got to surround yourself with a positive group of people and people who are there for you and just want to see nothing but the best for you.’’

Beckham did not sneak up on anyone as a rookie — he was, after all, the 12th-overall pick, from football power LSU — but year No. 2 is a whole different ballgame, as the hype for him is off the charts.

Has any second-year player been so heralded? He is the newly minted “Madden NFL 16” cover boy, and wait and see how quickly he comes off the board during your fantasy football draft.

Beckham did it all — 91 catches, 1,305 yards, 12 touchdowns — without much help, and now he gets to team with Victor Cruz — as long as Cruz can return to form following surgery to repair his right patellar tendon.

Beckham calls the field his “escape, that’s your getaway,’’ and soon enough, he takes the field for one of the most eagerly anticipated encores in Giants history.

“Every day, there’s always something I say I know I can do better, or I will do better at it,’’ he said.

Have we already seen the best of Odell Beckham Jr.?

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see,’’ he said, and then smiled.