Odell Missing Voluntary OTAs Is The Biggest Non-Story Ever

Charlie 5/23/2017 3:30 PM

It’s the downtime in the NFL news cycle. The Draft is over, training camp hasn’t begun yet, fans haven’t started being forced to talk themselves into Hard Knocks being a good show instead of mostly vanilla, generic reality TV with one or two memorable moments per episodes which you can just see on Barstool the next day. So when times get sleepy, there’s only one thing for NFL writers and reporters to do to fulfill their (largely successful) quest to make the NFL a 365-days-a-year league…make up some fake outrage to get clicks! Not surprisingly, the target is Odell Beckham Jr. and him not showing up (get the fainting couches and clutching pearls ready) to the first two days of voluntary OTAs!

I get why it’s easy to hate on Odell. I do. He celebrates, he can be annoying on social media, how emotional he is makes some people uncomfortable, he clearly loves being a celebrity, the Giants haven’t “won anything” since he started playing (even though blaming W-L record on a WR is ridiculous to anyone who knows even a little about the NFL but whatever) and he deserves every inch of criticism he got for not showing up in the biggest game of his career in Green Bay after the Boat Party and shirtless pregame and such. Odell doesn’t make things easier on himself.

But it’s incredibly frustrating to watch people put him in a box and make assumptions about him based on all of that. Because he’s a spectacularly talented and highly mercurial guy, everyone just assumes he’s another Terrell Owens/Ochocinco/. He’s not. Ocho cared more about personal branding than winning. Odell wants to win football games and does it with more heart than anyone else on the field. TO went after teammates and coaches in press conferences and leaked reports. Odell never has and by all accounts, everyone in the locker room loves him. Randy Moss openly admits to never giving him full effort on and off the field. Odell’s work ethic is incredible.

Players skip Voluntary OTAs all the time. They’re voluntary. Thus the word voluntary (I graduated from journalism school just last week so I can give penetrating insights to the English language like that). He’s working out with his trainer in California and is expected to join the team this week, on Thursday for their third of the 10 OTA sessions at the latest. Odell might not make things easier on himself, but that doesn’t make the people who question his character despite not knowing anything more about him than a few 10-second hot takes they saw on SportsCenter from whatever now-fired employee shilled them out, or will call him overrated despite having the best stats through three seasons in NFL history any less stupid.

Odell is who he is. He’s a generationally-talented wideout who occasionally makes brash, bad decisions and too often has to learn lessons the hard way. I get that he’s easy to come after, that he’s the new controversial wideout with a target on his back for the NFL media and post-Alex Rodriguez lightning rod for the New York media. And I guess it’d be smart of him to recognize and adjust to all of that. But that doesn’t make the opinions and fake outrage people drum up around him any less frustrating, or make the accusations that he somehow hurts the Giants organization any less incorrect and flat-out dumb. And if you’re going to come after him with all that, come after him with more than skipping a fucking voluntary OTA.

Twitter: @CharlieWisco

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