The Odell Beckham trade has firmly divided New York Giants fans.
Honestly, the pro-Beckham forces and the anti-Beckham crew have always co-existed among New York Giants fans. On one side, anything that OBJ did that was non-conformist was the worst thing to ever happen to the franchise. Conversely, for the other group, no matter what Beckham did, it was nothing to see here.
In reality, staunch stakeholders on either side of this equation are wrong.
For example, Beckham’s dangerous flame-out against the Carolina Panthers, his dog peeing act in Philadelphia and the ill-fated Miami boat trip, all were wrong, as was his curious Paris video.
Abusing the kicking net, choice of wardrobe and proposing to the kicking net were, on the other hand, non-issues, worthy of mention, but not much else. Face it, the guy has a bit of an eccentric personality, when checked, it’s fine. When unchecked, he generally goes off the rails, and that’s not good for the team.
Which brings us to the best part of the trade: That Odell Beckham fans will no longer, by osmosis, be New York Giants fans.
You know these fantasy football mavens, who couldn’t care less if the G-Men won or lost, but rather wanted (or needed) OBJ to catch 10 passes and a touchdown. Or the ones who didn’t care about his antics because, as one woman wrote me, “don’t say that about him, he’s fine.”
Or when some of us, who are just reporting facts, or reading the tea leaves, get ridiculed because we weren’t a de facto Odell Beckham ad agency. Jay Glazer of Fox Sports and The Athletic got blasted relentlessly when predicting that No. 13 would get traded this offseason.
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"“Giants fans bombarded [Glazer] on Twitter; they found family photos on Instagram; they called him fat; they called him short; they insulted his mother; they insulted his kid."
Glazer was just reporting on what his sources had told him, nothing more, and certainly nothing less. How reporting facts that some fans don’t want to hear triggers hatred, is a tailor-made study in human behavior. Lousy human behavior to be sure.
Just like loco parents who rail at coaches, officials and other kids at recreational sporting events, the crazy pro-Beckham forces are an embarrassment. With the trade consummated, these neanderthals are in full back pedal, which means at the local bar or on social media, they will be relying on faulty memories and a steady delete button.
Expect a heavy dose of “I never said that”.
Well, for those of you in the pro-Beckham camp and acted the fool, please take your loyalties to the team along the shores of Lake Erie. For the five seasons that Beckham wore a New York Giants uniform, you were a shill for his inappropriate antics, and worse yet, many of you polluted the lake of New York Giants fandom.
You see, there was never any balance to your emotions. While the rest of us could separate Beckham and his sometimes questionable behavior, yet your response was to shoot the messenger.
That means one of two things: 1. You were never really a New York Giants fan, or 2. Your judgement became clouded because you got lost in an emotional movement.
I don’t buy the argument when people go over-board that they are generally good people, who may have had a bad day, or that these folks generally mean well, but got caught up in emotion of the moment. Sorry, typing vial things while hiding behind a keyboard makes you coward.
I would give anything to see some of you have to go three rounds with Glazer in an octagon.
Let me lay it out for you.
If you got caught up in Beckham fever, and wrote dumb and vial things to folks just doing his or her job, then you’re a straight up sociopath. Please take this opportunity to find another NFL team for which you can root, hate or pretend to follow.
There is a silver lining to all of this, however.
The divorce is final, so we don’t need to put up with faux Giants fans any longer.
Buh-bye!