We now have video evidence of why no NFL teams were willing to sign Odell Beckham Jr. to a late-season contract. Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, etc. all passed on the mercurial wide receiver. What team would ever sign him after such deplorable behavior? Being removed from a plane crosses the line of human decency, and OBJ got his just desserts.
For context, if you haven’t been reading my rants about OBJ during his courting, that was sarcasm. We know why Beckham isn’t on a roster, but first here’s the footage of him being escorted off an American Airlines flight.
As far as ugly incidents caught on body cameras go, that’s not exactly scintillating content. The most damning part is when Beckham appears to talk shit to angry passengers — deplaning because OBJ refused to fasten his seatbelt.
While it’s entitled behavior and not something teams want in a locker room, if he was healthy and ready to go, Jerry Jones or another owner would’ve happily brought in OBJ regardless of him being an ass. Organizations are willing to overlook all kinds of behavior — criminal and non-criminal — if the reward outweighs the risk.
Considering Beckham refused to work out in meetings with potential employers, and the red flags raised by Dallas after his physical, suitors needed only the smallest of reasons to pass. It’s not like he’s ever endeared himself to teammates before, but we knew that.
I stopped writing about Beckham in-season because it was clear we wouldn’t see him on the field in 2022, and honestly the only impetus for writing this is basically an “I told you so” to all the outlets that exhaustively covered the dumbass Beckham sweepstakes.
So, um, yeah, I told you so.