The Saga of Odell Beckham Jr.
When the NFL season started September 8th, did you think that there would be any other storyline people would be talking about on October 5th besides Tom Brady returning from his 4-game suspension? Take it back a week. Did you think on September 28th that there would be any other storyline people would be talking about besides tom Brady returning from his 4-game suspension? If you answered ‘yes’ to either of those questions, I do not believe you. Instead, here we are, October 5th, and we’ve been talking about Odell Beckham Jr. Beckham has seemingly stole the spotlight from the 4x Super Bowl Champion. No, Beckham did not make another catch like he did his rookie season like he did against his rookie season against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football that everyone saw on the internet just seconds after it happened, but the 3rd year wide receiver’s on-field antics has him in the spotlight this week.
His numbers after only two seasons in the league are amazing and he even missed the first 4 games his rookie season with hamstring injuries. In 12 games his rookie season he still tallied over 1,300 yards and 12 touchdowns. 2015 was going to be his first full 16-game season, but until the infamous duel with Josh Norman who was then on the Panthers got him a 1-game suspension because of his unsportsmanlike behavior, he played 15 games but still had over 1,400 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns. So the numbers are impressive and he had yet to play a full season. The offseason was nothing but on-again, off-again trash talk and chatter between Norman and Beckham. While most of it was Beckham doing the talking, Norman would respond and fuel the fire but did say he was “not into the war of words.” Last week, NFL fans got their first of two tastes of Josh Norman vs. Odell Beckham Jr. Beckham got hit first (and so far only) 100-yard receiving of the 2016 season. But at what cost? Cameras are on Beckham at all times since he is considered by most to be a top 3 wide receiver in the NFL. Cameras caught Beckham hitting his helmet against a practice kicking net which came back to hit him in the face, which sent the internet into a frenzy with memes and tweets. Cameras also caught him on the sideline stomping around and yelling like a 7-year old kid throwing a temper tantrum, then came the “crying Odell” shot that everyone has seen.
Odell Beckham Jr. is an amazing, young, talented player. When he was in the 2014 draft, I had him as my 2nd rated wide receiver behind Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans who went just 5 sports above Beckham in the draft. The problem with Beckham now is he is an immature, selfish, head-case that is not willing to talk to his teammates or his coaches when he is frustrated. He often yells back or rolls his eyes and ignores what any veteran leadership has to say about him. Eli Manning, the guy that throws Beckham the football, even said Beckham needs to get it together and be professional. When your own quarterback says this, you should probably listen considering this guy has won two Super Bowl championships in his career and could very well get another if the Giants can get it all together in the coming years. Two of Beckham’s biggest peer supporters, Dez Bryant and Brandon Marshall, even spoke about the situation with Bryant voicing his support for the embattled wide receiver. Marshall took another approach to the situation. Marshall blamed the Giants organization and said they were “playing with fire” by criticizing Beckham and let this whole situation spill out into the media.
Now, the reason I wrote this article about Beckham was not to just write about something than the Colts (because that’s an even bigger dumpster fire), but to write about this situation on somewhere besides Twitter because my view on Beckham takes a lot more than 140 characters at a time and my followers would probably get tired of me tweeting about the same thing which most of them probably do not care about.
Odell Beckham is going to make it really easy for people not to like him considering how he acts on the field and feels neglected
— Alec Rohr (@ARRohr) October 4, 2016
Like I stated before, Beckham is an amazing, young, talented player. Many NFL wide receivers would love to have the stats he does the last two years. But when you act out the way Beckham does causing a distraction to your teammates and bringing attention to yourself, you are going to make it easy for people to not like you. Coming out and saying you are a “targeted player” and that the refs are against you, you are doing nothing but hurting yourself. I was not sure if he was trying to be funny in his post-game comments where he said “I just have to understand if I sneeze the wrong way it'll be a flag, it'll be a fine. If I tie my shoe the wrong way, it might be a fine or a flag,” but I saw it immature regardless.
I love watching Odell Beckham Jr. play football, he is one of the most electrifying players in the game. But until he stops whining, I am not going to care for what he has to say or do.
