Odell Beckham has been traded and some people are falling apart.
The Giants have no plan. How are the Giants going to win without one of the best players in the game? The Giants are tanking. The Giants got peanuts for Beckham. Why did the Giants sign him to that large contract extension and trade him so quickly?
That last question is a fair one, but the mistake was adding the contract extension, not in trading him.
The truth is the Giants are better off without him. Will that mean they are going to be in the playoffs this year? No, it won’t.
But the Giants have had enough of the drama, distractions, selfishness, and immaturity. Maybe it did not click with them when he signed that contract extension last summer, something I was not happy about. They probably hoped things would change, but they didn’t.
In the end, things did not change and the Giants had had enough. That means the Giant management; more specifically John Mara, Dave Gettleman, and Pat Schurmur.
After signing the deal, he went on a podcast with Lil’ Wayne wondering whether New York was right for him and he was not supportive of Eli Manning. Whether Manning deserved that support is besides the point. That prompted Mara to say “he should to do a little more playing and a little less talking.”
With all that went on with Beckham, it is right to question why the Giants signed him to the extension. But it is also fair to question why Beckham signed the extension if he wasn’t sure New York was the right place for him.
He then sat out the last four games with a calf injury and evidently, the Giants were furious about that. He would also go to the locker room early before the half because he was dehydrated several times.
Things simply reached their breaking point for the Giants.
They were not thrilled with Beckham last off-season, but Schurmur went out of his way to develop a relationship with him. They thought they could make it work and one year later, it didn’t.
Beckham is very talented, but missed a good chunk of the past two seasons with injuries. He is one of the best wide receivers in the game, but he hasn’t been elite these last two years and one better be elite if a team is going to put up with the headaches Beckham brings.
During his tenure with the Giants, Beckham:
- went off the deep end against the Carolina Panthers because cornerback Josh Norman’s trash talking got deep into his head. I do not know if I ever saw a player in any sport become so unglued, as Beckham went out of his way several times to hit and confront Norman, causing Giant penalties. He should have been disciplined by the Giants, especially by then-head coach Tom Coughlin, one who was known for being a disciplinarian. To me, this was a turning point in how Beckham stood with the Giants and some of their fans, as his meltdown was Jeremy Shockey-like. It was then that I knew he would never end his career as a Giant.
- went on a getaway-style trip with some teammates, days before a playoff game that Beckham performed poorly in – the only playoff game he ever appeared in. He then punched a hole in the wall beneath Lambeau Field.
- did his dog “peeing on a fire hydrant” act in the end zone, drawing a penalty.
- attacked a kicking net on the sideline and, worse, did his “marriage proposal” to the same kicking net weeks later.
- took his helmet off in the end zone after a long catch-and-run touchdown against the Eagles, drawing a flag. I was very unhappy with him, ruining an outstanding play with a foolish and selfish penalty. Luckily, the Giants won.
- he had a picture taken of him in a Paris hotel with a woman, a pizza, and what looked like marijuana and lines of cocaine. It doesn’t matter if the marijuana and cocaine were fake, it just gave many a bad impression.
Simply put, he made bad decisions on and off the field. He has been a knucklehead – that doesn’t mean he’s dumb, but he does stupid things.
I do not dislike Beckham – the guy I had a strong dislike for was Shockey during the latter part of his Giant career.
Now both both Beckham and the Giants can move on and it may be a good trade for both teams. That will depend on what the Giants do with the draft picks and how Beckham behaves in Cleveland. But if Beckham does not wise up, he will eventually leave Cleveland for another team.