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Odell Beckham Jr. and His Return to Domination
Odell Beckham Jr. has been all over the headlines for all the wrong reasons the last couple weeks. His emotions have bested him, which happens to show in his numbers through the first quarter of the NFL season. With only one game over 100 yards and no touchdowns, he obviously has reason to be frustrated. However, instead of maintaining a positive, optimistic outlook, he is taking his frustrations out on his opponents (to no avail) and kicking nets around him. Fortunately, he is still a young player with incredible potential and has all the means in the world to make things right.
OBJ became a sensation the moment he made "the catch". After that happened people began to watch him more closely. The media picked up on his unique warm-up routine where he only catches one-handers, keeping his hands down as long as possible before flinging them up in the air as if putting on a show for the early-to-arrive fans. He became a household name with his confident personality, fashion senses, and clips of highlight plays. What's not to like about a young wide receiver whose confidence and rate of success makes his job look easy? After gaining all the recognition his first two years in the league, he turned his "one-catch success" into a lifestyle.
There were reports that OBJ was living with Drake this summer. That's not really a big deal, it's just going to make headlines because, well… it's Drake. Not only was OBJ living with Drake, but he was also running around with the Kardashians! Also, nothing really wrong with that, but it almost seems like he took what success he had up to that point in his life at the age of 23, and put himself in a totally different circle of people. I'm not going to lie, his fashion senses are "on fleek" but in order to continue being successful, you need to work on perfecting your craft. It seemed like he wasn't about that life this summer, especially because he showed up late to training camp due to "scheduled days off", which happened to be time spent with the Kardashians. So, in the end, you're completely entitled to an offseason, but when it's time to work you gotta focus on work.
After getting his season started off on the wrong foot, he simply wasn't prepared to fulfill the world's expectations of himself. It's almost like he had hyped himself up so much with all the media attention that when he wasn't succeeding on the field his frustrations got the best of him. After attacking a kicking net (which got him back even worse), scuffling with opponents, and crying on the bench, the media has begun tearing OBJ down. His quote says it all: "I'm not having fun anymore." The negative attention on OBJ came as a concern to the Giants organization, and people affiliated with them. OBJ's former coach Tom Caughlin also weighed in on the situation:
"He is a good kid. He is a team guy in the team room. It's just when he gets on the field, there's only one way he knows how to play," Coughlin said, via NJ.com. "I would love to try to help him in this regard because I think so highly of him, but for his own good (he needs to calm down) because he is a distraction. If you watch a game, the camera is on him the whole time."
Even Eli Manning came out and said that "he brought it upon himself." I look at all of these critiques as a type of indirect disciplinary measure by OBJ's peers. Once OBJ can understand DISCIPLINE, and learn from his mistakes, he is going to come back stronger than ever. That fiery attitude that we've seen in recent outbursts will burn internally and fuel him to do amazing things that we know he is capable of doing. He has that competitive drive that will allow him to do great things in his career, but he will only be able to do that with that self-discipline and the support of his teammates.