Time to take out the trash -- OBJ is done in Cleveland!

    - If it were a Jeopardy! question the question might be: "Andre Rison, Dwayne Bowe, Kenny Britt and Odell Beckham, Jr."  An acceptable answer: "Who are four big name wide receivers who came to Cleveland for the sole purpose of collecting paychecks." -

    Odell Beckham opened his career as a Cleveland Brown by showing up for an introductory press conference only to bolt from OTAs a day later to "train" in Los Angeles and "get his head together."  He closed his career in Cleveland by showing a complete lack of testicular fortitude on a catchable ball with the game (and perhaps the season) on the line against the hated Pittsburgh Steelers.  In between, Beckham failed to give the Browns the production of a competent number two wide out.  That is the sad legacy of OBJ in the orange and brown.  

OBJ bitches out with the Browns' season on the line.

     Does anyone remember the Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson experiment in New England?  Probably not many.  The reason is that Tom Brady had no use for a wide receiver that he had no faith would be in the right place in his route at the right time.   He was a free-lancer like OBJ who professed to be like a 7-11 convenience store -- always open.   For OBJ, Freddie Kitchens said it when asked why the connection was not working out early -- "(We were) just not running routes the way we're supposed to do," Kitchens said. "If we're on rhythm in routes, they have to be in rhythm and at the proper depth.."   It was a lesson OBJ never cared to learn and that his former LSU football star father apparently never knew to teach him.

    Also like Johnson, OBJ's stardom comes from putting up numbers for teams that went nowhere.  Beckham's legend -- the greatest moment of his career -- came on a highlight-reel catch in a loss to the division rival Dallas Cowboys.  While in New York, Odell was like Carmello Anthony getting his as the Knicks lost night after night.   If you look at Odell's targets his final year in New York, they have an almost perfect inverse relation to how many points the Giants scored per game.  Yet, Beckham openly complained about his quarterback.  The Browns were flat out better last year in making their playoff push after Beckham was lost for the year to injury.

    Beckham is driven by a desire to build and maintain his brand -- not a competitive drive to be the best.  Football is a means to an end -- it is not a passion for OBJ.   If he could retain his celebrity and at the same time move on from football, Beckham would do it in a heartbeat.   He never wanted to be "stranded" in a secondary market like Cleveland where he could not enhance his celebrity.  It really made no difference that the Browns are considered an up-and-coming NFL team.  Odell is not about the team or winning, he's about OBJ.  So instead of puffing his chest out and picking up his injured quarterback when the Browns' season was on the line, OBJ made a business decision to not put his own body at risk and short-armed a catchable ball.  OBJ then immediately huddled up with his agent and his dad to find a way to scheme his way to a release.   A path to freedom and the glitz of LA or Vegas, perhaps.

    I say good riddance.  The real shame of OBJ's legacy is that the Browns could have drafted A.J. Brown, D.K Metcalf or Terry McLaurin with the first round draft pick they shipped to the Giants for OBJ and had $14 million a year extra to spend on the kind of football talent that could have really made a difference while keeping Jabrill Peppers and the third-round draft pick they also sent to New York in the trade.

    As a football player, OBJ seems broken.  He's fragile.  He's scared of injury.  He doesn't trust his body.  He's developed an uncanny knack for dropping easy catches at big moments.   He's a head case.  In short, Beckham does not help his quarterback.  In OBJ's years with the Browns, Baker Mayfield was better statistically throwing to literally anyone else on the roster.  That's a fact. His QBR targeting Beckham over his tenure with the Browns is 58.  For all other Browns wide receivers combined it is 85.2.

    In two years time, OBJ will be Dancing with the Stars or appearing on The Bachelor or doing some non-football related publicity grab to try to prolong his celebrity status.  Yet the national media talks about him like he is still the player from 2014-2017 who took over Victor Cruz's production with the Giants.  It's alright to speak the truth guys.  Lebron doesn't really like you anyway.   You are never going to get that exclusive interview and he's never going to let you into his inner sanctum no matter how much you sniff his jock,

    Both OBJ and his buddy Jarvis Landry have said that their former clubs shipped them to Cleveland to "die."  I believe that they both believe it.   The difference is that OBJ is proving the Giants right by going like a bitch into that gentle good night.  I have no doubt on the other hand that Jarvis will stand with his Cleveland teammates and rage against the dying of the light as the team stands at 4-4 with the season in the balance.  That's the difference between a man who loves ball and a man-child who loves the lifestyle that comes along with being a baller.

Time to take out the trash -- OBJ is done in Cleveland! Time to take out the trash -- OBJ is done in Cleveland! Reviewed by AT Dawgger on 8:20 PM Rating: 5

1 comment:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Powered by Blogger.