As the Giants roster is once gain depleted by injuries, there has been a call for the return of Odell Beckham to the blue. That is if the team could afford it and if he was actually interested in a team that was not playoff bound.
He was exciting but just because you have a good time with someone, doesn’t mean you put a ring on their finger, and just because a player is great doesn’t mean you sign them long-term. It is the general manager’s job is to find elite talent, and then figure out what type of player they are. They need to learn if a player is one that you can build a team with or a rental you acquire to get over the hump, as the Rams did by signing Odell Beckham last season.
There are Franchise Players and Then There are Rentals
Some great players play for only one or two teams in their careers. That’s why general managers like players that show leadership, team loyalty, and a giving back to the community. They become more than a player, but a part of the franchise. You have players like Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Chris Carter, Jerry Rice, Reggie Wayne, and Michael Irving whose jerseys are still being bought and whose numbers are hanging in some stadium’s rafters. Some have championships and some don’t.
Then you have those who often need a change in scenery and push their way out like Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, Keshawn Johnson, Antonio Brown, and Odell Beckham. Some have championships and some don’t. We can’t judge how one wants to go about their career but we can observe the differences.
Players Have Different Priorities
They are all aware of the business side of the sport, just some are more occupied with it. With elite talent comes the ability to focus on extracurricular activities while a player with less talent or leverage cannot afford to focus on anything but the game.
Like anyone else, athletes have different goals and priorities. Players know they have only so much time to maximize their earning potential even going so far as to put great effort into creating a brand and losing affects that brand. After all, they never truly know when their ability to earn vast sums of money will be taken away. That’s the reality they live in.
Some keep it simple. They might value sentimental loyalties, their dignity, or simple convenience, perform at a high level and let the money take care of itself. While others make taking control of their economic career priority one. Despite that after a year or two, they likely have earned more than the average person will make in their lifetime, the urgency to earn and to win still exists.
Odell has his Own Priorities
Odell is one with an intense burn. A popular guy with his NBA and music industry friends. He is like many NFL players that want that NBA money and notoriety forgetting that a football team has over four times as many players on a roster. They want a popular sneaker made by women and children in sweatshops named after them. They want football to be like school yard basketball where the best five kids can gang up and keep the court all day. Hell, they want that NBA clout where they can use the media to push their own agenda on franchise decision-making.
For instance, a few months after thanking his coach, general manager, and quarterback when signing a very lucrative 5-year deal, Odell threw all of them including the rest of his teammates under the bus in a notorious, televised ESPN interview. He alluded that his team had bad energy and no heart. Then he upped his self victimization by stating that there were always others keeping him from what he could be even in high school and college.
He continued to criticize Eli Manning who never critiqued him for his key drops or drive-killing penalties. The QB he was signed to help not sink. One of those guys that get his number in the rafters and has the championships. It was the New York version of the Beatles saying they were bigger than Jesus, but they were just joking. Odell’s public dishing of locker room dirt to make himself look good was all too real.
Though he claimed it was not about money, there he was on TV complaining about his team, pining for championships, Los Angeles, and promoting his buddy’s album. This was his version of Lebron’s Decision. A display of how self-important a mere athlete can make themselves to be.
Now the behavior might seem tone deaf, selfish, and frankly hurtful to his teammates and fans, but on the business side of it, he is now Super Bowl Champion, something a lot of great players cannot say.
Biting the Hand that Feeds
All players want those championships and like he said, “all he wants to do is win”, but that is not good enough for a team game if you are a GM or owner. One needs to do what it takes as a team to win. Yet if you invest in a player like that you will risk getting the Gettleman treatment. Odell did not do favors for his GM. In return for years of dodging pointless not-football questions about Odell from the media, Gettleman constantly received their wrath.
He risked his job trying to do what New York demanded, giving Eli another chance to win with a roster that didn’t have the tools. Therefore, he resigned a receiver who he didn’t even draft to help the quarterback. He did so despite the harassment from the media, and Odell’s unprofessional behavior on and off the field that ticked owners and fans alike. Crap a general manager of a professional team should not have to deal with.
What is a General Manager to do?
Any general manager would have traded Odell after he stabbed him in the back with that interview but the New York media smelled blood and attacked. Although he sent him to an apparently upcoming team to play with his best friend, Jarvis Landry, Odell vilified his old boss for months through the media and insulted Cleveland by insinuating it was Hell. Within a few years, he went from praising his new quarterback to attacking him and forcing himself off yet another team.
Yet, he did finally get to L.A. like he wanted and he does have his ring. As he said, that’s all that matters. From here he will heal up and sign with another playoff team. Maybe he will catch another ring and there will be more jersey sales. Perhaps he may remain happy for a while as long as he doesn’t stay too long. Such is the life of the NFL soldier of fortune.
Again, who are we to judge?
