Even though Odell Beckham Jr. appears to have gotten his act together, the NFL still doesn’t seem to trust him.
After an offseason of debate about his character, New York Giants star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has been a model citizen over the last few months. Since April, he’s done everything the Giants could have asked for, and then some.
But, apparently that’s not enough to gain the trust of the league office.
Beckham sent out a fiery tweet Thursday morning in which he expressed frustration with how often he’s been randomly drug tested by the league.
Well then. That’s a lot of random drug tests. Hyperbole aside, it’s not hard to believe that Beckham might really be walking into drug test notices at his locker every other week.
You don’t have to dig too deep to understand why the NFL would target Beckham. We’ve all seen the video that leaked of him in March in a hotel room with a woman, a brown, rolled cigarette, and a white powdery substance. When a star puts himself in that position, he can certainly expect follow-up attention from the league whether it’s warranted or not.
And upon further thought, Beckham’s gripe may be more substantial. The random testing that players are subjected to throughout the season is for performance-enhancing drugs. The drugs that many speculated were involved in the March video of Beckham — which he never was proven to have any actual contact with — do not fall under the category of performance-enhancing drugs.
All NFL players are tested for recreational drug use once between April 20 and Aug. 9, and Beckham passed that test without incident.
So why would the league be drug-testing him so frequently?
As ESPN’s Max Kellerman asked on First Take this morning, is it possible that the things this guy does on the field are so mind-boggling that the league has questions his legitimacy? The freak athleticism that the 25-year old exhibits on a weekly basis is downright breathtaking.
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Beckham is also on the heels of a serious ankle injury that he suffered last October. Players have been caught taking PEDs to speed up the rehabilitation process from such injuries.
Whatever the reason — or the validity of it — Beckham has been in the league’s crosshairs for quite some time now. Such is life as one of the most polarizing stars the NFL has seen in, well, ever.