Sometimes you lose.
This may sound a bit outrageous and absurd, but in the world of sports, that’s often the norm.
Sometimes you get outplayed, and the other team is just better.
That’s precisely what happened Sunday afternoon when the New York Giants were beaten by human flame emoji Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.
Odell Beckham Jr., the definitive best player on the Giants, received the brunt of the criticism because of his three drops — one a potential touchdown.
“The ultimate test of being ready is what do you do when the lights are on, and he wasn’t ready,” former NFL star wide receiver Cris Carter said on FS1’s “Undisputed” on Monday.
“Odell Beckham Jr. came up too small, smaller than Justin Bieber, quieter than Trey Songz,” the New York Post — a publication that once wrote that John Lennon’s “Imagine” is the worst song of all time — wrote.
The chief criticism of the star wideout was that Beckham and a few teammates took a trip to Florida on their day off, and the trip included an outing on a boat.
The announcers of the game brought this point up ad nauseum and linked it to the wide receiver’s inadequate play.
This is ridiculous. Honestly, just forget a-boat it.
In the era of 24/7 sports coverage, any small story like this blows up with the same ferocity as the Steelers’ Bud Dupree’s hit on Dolphins’ quarterback Matt Moore.
Beckham is the perfect example of a star who is scrutinized almost daily for every insignificant detail.
Beckham punched a kicking net. Write a 2,000-word column reprimanding all wide receivers!
He was upset after a game and stood silently outside the locker room before meeting the media. Someone compare this to the downfall of millennials and thus America!
“I think it did a great job at creating distractions for us, and it’s unfortunate,” Beckham told reporters after the game. “That’s just the way this world is. There’s just no way you can connect something that happened seven days ago to this game today and how we came out and played and how the Packers have won seven in a row and how they scored 38 points and how they executed. They came up with the third downs, they did what they needed to do. So the connection is just not there in my opinion. But everyone can have their own opinion, so.”
What makes this so gross is the tinge of racism lurking underneath, in the same vein of past critiques of former 76ers point guard Allen Iverson or Carolina Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton.
“He’s not playing the right way,” is often an assessment with the undertone of, “He’s not playing our way.”
Hall of Fame QBs Tom Brady and Peyton Manning chew out their wide receivers on a game-by-game basis, but they get honored while similar outbursts from Beckham would cause him to be declared a “thug.”
It’s OK to say Beckham had a bad game. He did.
It’s when the sportswriters try to create a deeper reason why that their columns seem forced.
As a writer and reader of sports, it is this type of journalism that infuriates me. The constant ribbing and accusatory tone seems TMZish at times.
Talking heads from ESPN to FS1 will try to blame the New York loss on Beckham having a life outside of football and his antics.
The Giants’ superstar is getting reprimanded by the media.
It’s about time we look at why.
gigottfr@indiana.edu
@gott31
