New York Giants: Odell Beckham Jr. is growing up

New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham cannot escape criticism even when he does the right things off of the football field.

New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is an easy target for criticism these days. Sports talk radio hosts with little to discuss during the slow summer months know they will receive phone calls and attention on Twitter upon merely mentioning Beckham. Writers generate clicks by putting Beckham’s name in headlines and by suggesting he is a negative for the Giants for whatever reasons.

The 24-year old is flashy, and he also happens to be an exceptional player who features for a franchise located in the world’s largest sports market. It’s the perfect recipe for hot takes.

One can practically hear local beat reporters salivating upon seeing Beckham get into scuffles with defensive backs during games or whenever he either dances after scoring a memorable touchdown or drops what appeared to be a catchable pass. Beckham has become the largest media lightning rod in the New York sports market since Alex Rodriguez.

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Thus, it wasn’t all that surprising to wake up on Tuesday morning to a piece written by the excellent Gary Myers of the New York Daily News directed at Beckham. Myers’ open letter to Beckham includes a mention of how the fourth-year pro skipped voluntary OTAs and the highly-respected writer compared the receiver to the likes of Doc Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Lawrence Taylor and Matt Harvey.

In fairness to Myers, he probably couldn’t have picked a worse time to have this post auto-publish heading into the start of meaningful training camp sessions. After all, it was only earlier this week when a story about Beckham flying to Texas to spend time with a nine-year old fan battling cancer went public. Granted, you probably didn’t hear a lot about that on New York sports radio, because such facts take away from the narrative Beckham is a supposed “me-before team” diva.

Giants' Odell Beckham Jr. makes dream come true for 9-year-old boy with rare form of cancer. https://t.co/Gsbdiu5hKM
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) July 24, 2017

Beckham is neither a perfect player nor a perfect person. He’s hot-headed, and he allows his emotions to get the best of him during games more often than anybody would like to see. He’s missed fan events. He’s been fined and even suspended. Some wonder if the Giants signing him to a long-term contract, an inevitability so long as he continues to set records during games, will be worth the hassle.

How would perceptions of Beckham change if people placed as much importance on the good things he does away from the game? What if Beckham delighting young would-be players at a football camp went viral? Why aren’t hours of radio and television segments devoted to the fact that Beckham spent time learning from Hall-of-Fame receiver Cris Carter when he wasn’t at voluntary OTAs? Are you even aware, by all accounts, Beckham is in game shape today even though the regular season is roughly a month and a half away?

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Any notion Beckham needs to grow up is interesting if only because he’s doing so, but on his terms and his time. Beckham wasn’t a distraction to a Giants side that won 11 games last year. Not only did he not cost Big Blue games. He won no fewer than four contests for New York last fall. He doesn’t spark an ounce of controversy with his words. He is, in fact, so noiseless throughout regular-season midweeks that it was seen as a sin when he and teammates took a trip to Miami a week before a playoff game. Ignore that players around the league take mini-vacations for a day or two following contests literally every week of every season. Those guys aren’t Beckham, so they apparently can get away with it.

If nothing else, perhaps we could all agree to pump the brakes on comparing him with former New York flame-outs until he earns such scorn. The previously mentioned Gooden, Strawberry and Taylor all admittedly dealt with substance-abuse issues during their careers. As of late July 2017, there are not even whispers Beckham has any similar problem. The biggest concern one could have in that department is that Beckham has worked out with much-maligned former NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel, hardly a crime worthy of a ban.

Myers is correct in that Beckham could possibly fail to reach his ceiling and live up to his tremendous potential. At what point, though, is it acceptable to suggest we all allow Beckham to screw up before we label him a screw-up? Instead of hoping to be right about something that may occur in the future, why are some denying themselves the joy of watching who may be a once-in-a-generation offensive weapon score touchdowns and captivate fans?

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Beckham may never be who you want him to be. He may never be enshrined in Canton, or evolve into the greatest receiver in history. We just don’t know. Beckham is clearly taking public and private steps in the right direction to improve as an athlete and a person, something that obviously irritates those rooting against the young man. He’ll deserve all the condemnation he gets if he wastes his gifts. That hasn’t happened yet, regardless of what some would like you to believe.

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