Over the years, Odell Beckham Jr. seems to have made tremendous progress – both with his latest injury as well as his on-field performance as the wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins of the NFL. If anything, he has come a long way from 2017, when sports commentator Skip Bayless brutally criticized him after a match that showcased “his second worst yardage of his career.”
Although it has been seven years since then, Bayless’ comments still sting as viciously as ever after OBJ made more than a few mistakes while playing for the Giants against the Packers. To say the least, Beckham leading his team to party with Justin Bieber in Miami before their match made Bayless furious to the point where he even wanted to take back his prediction of that match.
The Time Skip Bayless Ripped Odell Beckham Jr. for Partying with Justin Bieber
Odell Beckham Jr. inevitably started great, winning the Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2014 during his first season with the New York Giants. But a little while after garnering such immense fame for his outstanding talent, the wide receiver seemed to have slightly drifted from his aim and taken things a lot more lightly by the time the 2017 New York Giants season came along.
This stood especially true after witnessing him drop three crucial passes during one of the most important playoffs against the Green Bay Packers, surprising not only the fans but even Skip Bayless. What’s more, is that this chaotic turn of events ensued after Beckham was seen partying with Justin Bieber and Trey Songz in a nightclub before taking it to a boat in Miami.
If it were a bye week, of course, the sports columnist wouldn’t have joined the dots for their uneventful trip to the hot-summer Miami to the unfateful match in single-digit temperatures at Lambeau Field that same week. But this was a regular week, and Bayless couldn’t just let this pass as a silly mistake with the reason justifying it being “kids today are different.”
Thus, he unleashed his brutal rant against OBJ during that week’s Monday edition of Undisputed. Pointing out how this was “no way to prepare” for the playoff game, an overly infuriated Bayless said (via The Facility on YouTube):
Football, as you well know, and you should well know, is the ultimate team game, especially in January. And that — that sent the wrong tone, the wrong message to a defense… The defense had been carrying this team all year long. You can’t tell me they were not offended by this behavior, that they weren’t furious over this behavior.
Of course, this rant seems as plausible as ever because, as he emphasized, “Football always will be the ultimate team game, the ultimate unity game, the ultimate laser focus in the locker room game where it’s all for one and one for all – everybody’s sacrificing for everybody, especially at this time of the year where, for your brothers, you do what needs to get done to get your team ready.”
That said, Beckham spending his time partying in the hot weather when he should have been conditioning his body to play in the cold against the Packers in a weather with a minus-degree temperature obviously set up a bad look for the team and the way they performed. And for the sports commentator, this felt like nothing short of an attention-grabbing move.
“It’s another ‘look at me,’ ‘build your brand,’ kind of a move”: Skip Bayless
During another episode of Undisputed from around a week later, Bayless was still as restless about this situation as ever. If anything, he was still furious about it all, and the way OBJ was shirtless during warmups before the game in the intense weather conditions helped him prove how this all felt like an attention-grabbing move by the players, just like their trip to Miami.
As an infuriated Bayless said during his incensed rant: “It’s another ‘look at me,’ ‘build your brand,’ kind of a move… It’s just the wrong place, the wrong time for that. And yet, if the yacht club backed it up with early big catches, I would have had to back off and say, ‘You got me on that one. Maybe the kids do know how to prepare in Miami.’ But no.”
That’s not all. Continuing, he then pounced on Beckham for his performance, saying: “What happened? Odell Beckham Jr. had his second-worst yardage of his career — 28 total receiving yards. And it was the first time in his career he dropped a touchdown pass in the end zone. So I think not only did he not back it up, he drove home the point that he was completely out of line.”
Inevitably enough, this controversy around the young star seemingly losing his touch and taking such a crucial match lightly enough to go around partying during a regular week in the opposite weather conditions of what they were about to face did Beckham more harm than good. Then, there was his alleged controversial stance with Bieber at the party, which added fuel to the fire.
At the same time, it seems like Skip Bayless’ words hit Odell Beckham Jr. right where it hurts because, following that ill-fated match, the current wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins actually progressed a lot more in his performances, considering how he even played a key role in helping the Los Angeles Rams win the Super Bowl LVI against the Cincinnati Bengals.
