If Cleveland Browns fans woke up on Thursday hoping for less drama, they’d be disappointed.
Odell Beckham Sr., two days after sharing a video about his son not getting thrown the football, continues to make that a focal point.
On Thursday, he made another post on Instagram.
This time it’s just a photo.
However, it’s a shot of the video title with a caption that shouts out the producer of the video.
View this post on Instagram
Beckham Sr. wrote:
“WHHHAAAA…Shout out to Jdaddy Productions on YouTube.com for making this video, a week ago which allowed me to find it and post it 3days after…”
As one will see in the comments, Browns fans are not thrilled.
With Odell Beckham Jr.’s agents and Cleveland’s front office meeting yesterday, the hope was that this would get put in the past sooner than later.
Clearly, OBJ’s dad is not too eager to let this whole thing go just yet.
Takes Two to Tango
Baker Mayfield’s press conference after Wednesday’s practice went just fine, all things considered.
He wasn’t overly emotional about the video or situation, yet, he was honest enough to admit it surprised him.
Baker: "I've had conversations with his dad before, man-to-man, face-to-face. And I was pretty surprised by the video and the intentions and the feelings behind it. I would be lying if I said otherwise." #Browns pic.twitter.com/h5bI0vINaV
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) November 3, 2021
On all accounts, it seems Baker is more than willing to basically forget about this whole thing and move on for the sake of winning football games.
Even if some of the on-field problems that Odell Sr.’s video looks to expose are truly on Baker, this off-field drama is not.
Odell Sr. making another post regarding the video is just fuel on the fire.
This leads me to believe that the meeting between Odell’s agents and Cleveland’s front office did not accomplish much of anything.
If it did, and the two sides agreed to move on, this post likely doesn’t happen.
There’s still animosity on that side of this equation, however, and that’s a problem.
Think of two friends going through a disagreement.
If only one drops their pride to overcome the issue, the problem is never solved.
That other friend will still be bitter, and the friendship will suffer.
With Baker and Odell, that leads to serious on-field issues.
Odell is not invested in the offense, Baker is out of rhythm, and the offense suffers as a result.
If the two parties cannot get things resolved soon, this could get even uglier.
Staying off Social Media
If Odell Beckham Jr. truly wants to make it work in Cleveland, these posts need to stop.
Athletes often take criticism on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other outlets from fans they don’t even know.
When posts come from relatives of your teammates, however, that changes the game.
Baker claims he’s not hurt by the video, and I’ll take his word on that.
He’s a grown man, he’s faced harsher criticism.
The surprise factor is what gets to Baker here.
For this video to come out in the middle of the season, from someone he’s had face-to-face conversations with, and a relative of his top wide receiver, it’s a jarring moment.
I won’t say this is all impossible to move past, but it sure seems difficult now.
The post on Thursday is a doubling-down on the video, emphasizing his claim that Baker is not throwing his son the ball.
A claim that Baker, by the way, does not agree with whatsoever.
Baker, on Odell Sr.'s allegation that Baker is deliberately not throwing the ball OBJ's way: "Deliberately not throwing the ball to an extremely talented player that I've done a lot of work with… that's an opinionated statement, I'll say that.” #Browns pic.twitter.com/Z4nByfKuw6
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) November 3, 2021
It’s Thursday afternoon and there’s next to no chatter about the Bengals.
That’s a problem, and these Odell Beckham Sr. posts are not helping.
NEXT: Browns Sign Johnny Stanton To Practice Squad
