Odell Beckham Jr. Has Lost Nick Wright
By Kyle Koster
It's been a rough week for Odell Beckham Jr. The, uh, high of Monday night and an LSU national championship has come with a major hangover. Between the $100 handshakes and non-consensual butt-slapping, the Cleveland Browns wide receiver has had a lot on his plate, including an arrest warrant.
Things have been emerging in drips and drabs, meaning the full scope of Beckham's tornado-like presence at the title game is only now being understood. And because there are multiple elements to it all, pundits have found themselves having to do a lot of explaining and parsing.
Most reasonable people agree that college players should be paid. They also agree it wasn't the best idea for Beckham to be doling out real money after the final whistle, but it wasn't the end of the world.
Slapping the rear end of law enforcement, though, is a bit tougher to defend. There are going to be repercussions if a person does that, though they may seem a bit extreme in this case. But the way to avoid them is not putting one's self in that situation.
Nick Wright, who has served as one of Beckham's biggest defenders through all this, was finally forced to stop playing defense this morning.
"Odell, I defended you on handing out the money. ... But this is idiotic. You can't act like the security guard just kicked the game-winning field goal & slap him on the butt. You're the grown up in the room. It puts your buddy Nick Wright in a terrible spot." — @getnickwright pic.twitter.com/6Ns5f3UYtK
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) January 17, 2020
Credit where credit is due: there are some people on television -- and in real life -- who would hold tightly to their position and go down with the ship.
There are countless reasons for Beckham to get his act together and they are almost all more important than making a Fox Sports personality look bad. But, hey, every appeal to better angels is worth a shot.