How Odell Beckham Jr. Became the Most Polarizing Player in Football

football carries a reputation for being the ultimate team game but just like any other sport it's almost always individuals that drive each narrative or discussion it's it's aaron bleep and rogers he's aaron rodgers e-r-r-a-n-t right that is the most laughable statement you have ever made in the history of this show yes the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts on the field but when it comes to distributing blame for failure that concept gets tossed right out the window quarterbacks obviously make up the majority of dog piling victims but beyond qbs or players who make singular mistakes it seems like the next favorite target of fans in the sports media has always been loud and outspoken wide receivers there are a few players that rings more true for than odell beckham jr who warrants it or not has received the bulk of both positive and negative attention aimed at his teams all throughout his nfl career ever since the moment he made that one-handed catch all the way back in 2014. that may be the greatest catch i've ever seen in my life it's in the conversation now nearly eight years later obj's career stands at a crossroads finding himself as a free agent recovering from his second acl tear in just two seasons a super bowl ring on his finger but very little clarity on what lies ahead so today i want to take a look back on beckham's career and relationship with the media thus far and decide just how much of that constant criticism and blame he's received over the years was really warranted because there's two sides to every story and lord knows there have been plenty of stories about odell beckham jr but before we board that endless roller coaster i'd like to take a quick second and thank draftkings for sponsoring this video football season is finally kicking off again and to celebrate the top-rated sportsbook app in america is putting you straight into the action with the ability to turn a 5 or more pre-game wager on the college or nfl team of your choice 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it's become far too easy to forget just how good he has always been at playing football in his rookie season despite missing the first four games due to injury obj became the only player to ever break 1300 receiving yards playing 12 games or fewer to get an idea of how you do that in december 2014 he put together a stretch of four games with 130 plus receiving yards and a touchdown in each totaling out to a rookie record 606 yard calendar month watching beckham work felt like the arrival of the next nfl breaking talent his release was absurdly fast his concentration and awareness to pull the ball in was unreal and he immediately established himself as one of the flashiest and most flamboyant players at a position that specializes in those two categories so after just one season between the catch the end zone dances and becoming the youngest player to ever grace the cover of madden odell beckham had become not only the face of the new york giants but really the entire nfl at 22 years old the pressure wouldn't make a difference though at least not yet as over the following two seasons beckham averaged 98 catches 1408 yards and nearly 12 touchdowns a year earning three straight pro bowl nods and cementing himself as a top-end talent that could turn any routine slant into a house call the only receiver to land in the same ballpark as that within his first three seasons is a guy that's named randy moss but like we established that statistical excellence was far from the only headlining ability beckham brought to the table part of what made obj such a household name in the first place was the way that he's always worn his emotions on his sleeve i mean if you're playing a position where you're betting on yourself every snap to go out and beat one or multiple defenders over and over again then self-confidence and ego is something of a job requirement i was 35. man they all suck man come on just me it's me horrible in the case of beckham though what happened between plays would pick up such a life of its own that it began to fracture off into being a separate entity sidelined tirades and the growing list of uniform violations you had odell beckham jr's results on the field and then you had obj and as beckham would soon find out controversy is as lasting to a player's reputation as nfl records december 2015 nearing the end of beckham's second season odell faces off with panthers corner josh norman in a matchup that got so heated obj would be suspended the next game for delivering a helmet to helmet hit the next time that pair met the following season beckham got so frustrated that he lost a fight to his team's kicking net on the sideline don't laugh it's very serious fortunately a few weeks later the two made up and eventually became happily engaged but for as entertaining as that was the love story wasn't quite as sweet when it came to the giants finding success on the field and beckham's open frustration on the sidelines would make his face synonymous with the team's struggles of course the peak of this criticism stemmed from this boat photo taken of giants players a week before they played green bay in the 2016 wild card round it is a perfectly stupid picture of a bunch of guys wearing jeans and boots on the open ocean but the wider reaction to this photo was that it was proof the team wasn't taking their match up seriously at all and of course that obj was the ringleader that weekend the packers trounced new york 38-13 and beckham played incredibly poorly with only four catches for 28 yards on 11 targets with reports that he cried and punched a hole in the locker room wall after the game and with a long offseason of disappointment following an 11-5 year for the giants every third piece about the team evaluated beckham's effect on new york now would i say it was fair of the media to dogpile beckham and anoint him with a label of distraction after three seasons of incredible success no not at all but his unwillingness to reign in his emotions on the field provided the type of photos and headlines that made him the central subject win loss or embarrassment unfortunately in a 2017 season where odell could have started to turn the page on those perceptions his year was ended early by injuries fracturing his ankle in week four without beckham the giants limped to a 3 and 13 finish and despite their hopes to squeeze one last ring out of eli manning by adding saquon barkley in the following draft new york would again sputter out the next year at 5 and 11. however beckham did manage to return to form following his injury with a thousand yards and 6 touchdowns in only 12 games played no season where beckham was on the field could run its course without some controversy but no matter how big of an obj detractor you were it was clear that the giant's woes on both sides of the football had very little to do with him being an anchor on the organization with that said odell beckham was traded to the cleveland browns on march 13 2019 sending shockwaves through the nfl considering the ink had barely dried on a five-year extension from the previous offseason whether it was the big money promise during what was finally admitted to be a rebuild or the constant flurry of off-field stories drummed up by the new york media the giants were out on obj after five years with the team regardless of why new york felt that a move was necessary the relocation was seen as a massive upgrade to both the browns and beckham and all told it felt like the perfect place to put an end to centering every narrative on this one guy and refocusing on a franchise poised to finally make a run after decades of irrelevance reunited with his college roommate jarvis landry beckham looked like the key to unlocking the browns offense and second year quarterback baker mayfield which only made it that much more disappointing when cleveland finished with the league's 11th worst passing offense and a 6-10 record in the worst statistical year of beckham's career thus far for a change though obj wouldn't have to play scapegoat for the team's failure to live up to expectations that blame would be shouldered by head coach freddie kitchens although don't get it twisted he's still got to fight a few narratives the end of 2019 saw beckham require sports hernia surgery after injuries had been a nagging issue all season which mostly exonerated him from the questionable chemistry he had displayed with baker mayfield so cleveland moved forward into 2020 with a desire to erase their hype train wreck from everyone's memory always quick to pull attention obj made the front page that offseason both for warranted and unwarranted reasons everything from a monumentally stupid move to hand wads of cash to nfl players after they won the national title to a number of scattered rumors about his personal life but on the field beckham was making it back to full strength and ready to go on a tear to prove everyone who said he'd lost a step wrong even somehow getting stories for dying his hair blonde as a symbol of resurrecting his dominance the media was still glued to his every move but as for returning to elite production the blonde hair was the closest he'd get odell beckham only played seven games in 2020 tearing his acl on a freak play while chasing down an interception with most injuries you'd think that would quiet any discourse surrounding him at least until he got back on the field but that could not be further from the truth leading up to his injury hot takes and criticism of beckham had reached a fever pitch as the dominant connection envisioned with baker mayfield was just not materializing even with new head coach kevin stefanski breathing life into the brown's offense obj looked like a misfit despite every assurance that he was a central focus averaging less than four catches and just 53 yards in his six games before injury it wasn't like he'd lost a step but it was clear that something was always slightly off coincidence or not once beckham was forced out of the lineup the hiccups in the browns passing game seemed to slowly but surely smooth over cleveland went on to win five of their next six following beckham's injury and would end up securing and winning a playoff game for the first time since 1994. all odell could do was watch from the sidelines and wish that he could write the pain of his only playoff appearance to that point but now that the browns had proven they could find success with beckham sidelined it was time for somehow the most discourse of odell beckham's discourse-filled career was he just always the problem baker mayfield is better without odell beckham jr but i think it cannot be overlooked that baker mayfield has just flat played better since o'dell left baker got to odell centric he got too caught up in odell the reality is baker mayfield is a better quarterback without obj sure it seems asinine on the surface considering obj's talent and track record but the detractors had their arguments ranging from anecdotes on how baker looked more composed without his star receiver on the field to statistical comparisons that correlated obj's absence with an increase in mayfield's efficiency regardless of what side of the debate you stood on when it came to the start of the 2021 season it would have been unfair to come down too hard against obj considering he didn't get the benefit of growing with the offense but when he finally got back into the lineup the browns struggled to 4 and 4 through their first eight this time with beckham failing to eclipse 80 yards or score a touchdown entirely in his six games play at this point it had now been over two full years since odell beckham had posted his single hundred yard receiving performance on the browns something he had previously never gone five games without in a single season before that without a hot start to smooth over lingering questions two very distinct bases formed around who was to blame for obj and mayfield's non-existent chemistry the talking heads were debating this for hours but the fire had yet to be truly ignited until odell's father odell beckham senior shared an 11 minute video titled odell beckham jr is always open which included baker mayfield missing obj on a number of throws or outright not throwing him the ball while he was running free this was obviously cause for considerable alarm to the browns in mayfield who still maintained a friendly relationship with beckham independent of their on-field struggles whether odell jr provided the go-ahead for his father to post that critical video is unknown since he never commented on it but it's obviously very unlikely he didn't at least share some of those same frustrations regardless that video drew a final line in the sand with anonymous reports of beckham being disconnected being challenged by a number of teammates even saying that though they disagree with the video posted by his dad that beckham had never been anything but an ideal teammate in cleveland odell himself would state that there were multiple reconciliation attempts made that fell through and private trade requests dating a year back that went unanswered put plainly it was a show on wheels and the browns had little choice but to accelerate the end of the obj era in cleveland by excusing him from practices before officially releasing him three days after that video was posted still an elite receiving talent in spite of bridges burned the free agency recruiting process was a chaotic but quick one for beckham who signed an incentive-laden one-year deal with the la rams on november 11 2021. immediately doubt was cast on the partnership which had a sky-high ceiling but carried the inherent risk of controversy that's been sutured to obj's name for almost a decade it was questioned as to whether or not beckham could adjust to a reduced roll considering cooper cup was right in the midst of one of the greatest receiving seasons in nfl history but the rams were all in and beckham was intrigued by the way that coach sean mcvay promised to utilize him upon his arrival it took one single blowout loss for none other than troy aikman to toss up the idea that beckham was going to derail the ram success up until that point but the easy road of shifting blame to beckham would soon prove a little more difficult than in years past once his full integration of the offense took place it became clear instantly that beckham knew his role wasn't to be the show-stopping weapon they already had but instead to provide his unique skill set when called upon a role that became even more necessary with the loss of robert woods to season ending injury la was able to scheme him directly into his strengths eating up chunks of open field off of play action seizing the opportunity to take massive shots down field and putting him in a position to make tough catches in the red zone all previous hallmarks of his game that many had questioned the existence of after his stint in cleveland beckham may have been playing as the clear second option for the first time in his career but he certainly showed that he still had that explosive ability that made him a household name over the final eight regular season games with the rams obj tallied 27 catches for 305 yards and 5 touchdowns with that last number falling just too shy of the total he'd accumulated in 29 games with the browns this hot streak would carry straight into the playoffs with his impact felt in every postseason game the rams played 4 for 54 and a touchdown against the arizona cardinals 6 for 69 in a win over the defending champion buccaneers and 9 for 113 in the rams nfc title win over the san francisco 49ers he was taking full advantage of his shot at playoff redemption and with every new reception and yard logged the more the narrative around obj shifted in the public eye yeah i'm sure the team was winning but you could really only laugh over how quickly the always present negative noise that had always surrounded his career had just gone silent through all the turbulent ups and downs it finally seemed like odell beckham had found a home that placed him back in the conversation with the best receivers in the nfl in super bowl 56 against the cincinnati bengals beckham continued to roll opening up the game scoring with a 17-yard touchdown grab and soon after that making a 35-yard snag that put the rams into scoring territory once again but in a career that has never seemed to stay too smooth for too long adversity struck once again when his third target saw beckham immediately grab for his knee the same one that he tore the acl of just a year and a half prior when he was playing for the browns later scans would confirm the exact same injury forcing beckham to the sideline and once again enduring the pain of watching his team play in the biggest moment of his football career without him while it was certainly heartbreaking to endure beckham's contribution to the rams helped push them over the top in the end securing the team's first super bowl win since their relocation to los angeles and it's not hard to see from his reaction just how emotional this victory was for him there are few players who have ever experienced that level of emotional whiplash in just a few short hours and broadened out to the span of the last couple seasons it's truly one of the most bittersweet redemption stories in recent memory now approaching his 30th birthday beckham has to start all over again without a team or clear time frame on when we will see him on the field in 2022 or beyond when he is back he'll have the task of proving his value once again despite the dominance he just displayed the last time he was there so if there's one thing that's worth taking away from the insane path obj's career and reputation have taken over the past decade it's definitely to take any argument that isolates an individual as the root cause of team problems with a hefty grain of salt for us fans and the media as outsiders the impact of an individual's performance or anonymous locker room rumors will always have an outsize appearance but in all reality it's far more likely that you're seeing the underlying issues of a 53-man roster and coaching staff being pinned onto the most publicly recognized face as humans it's natural to want to do this and that's why it sells time and time again but following the 2021 season odell stands as a shining example of just how quickly the tune can change given the right or wrong set of circumstances so there's a massive amount of uncertainty going forward on where the career of odell beckham jr is going to be headed next but the one thing that is certain is that in more ways than one he's already made a permanent mark you

Channel: Set the Edge

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Length: 18min 57sec (1137 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 04 2022