Kyle McCoy 

Features editor 

Kzm266@psu.edu

On Friday, November 5th, the Cleveland Browns announced that they would be releasing wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. from his contract. He is set to hit waivers on Monday and after it is completed, he can then be claimed by any team in the league starting Tuesday at 4 p.m. The release came after a  week full of drama and speculation surrounding Beckhams standing with the team. The drama all started on Tuesday morning when Odell Beckham Sr. posted a video to his Instagram page that highlighted all the times that Browns quarterback  Baker Mayfield didn’t throw the ball to his son Beckham Jr. He was also very active in the comments section of that post, liking and replying to comments that were critical of Mayfield.One such comment that claimed that Mayfield was “either hating on Odell or he just doesn’t want him shining.” Beckham Sr. replied with three green check marks, indicating his approval for the statement. Many of the comments featured the #FreeObj which became a trending topic on Twitter and many users tweeted their support for OBJ. The drama reached a fever pitch on Wednesday when it was revealed that OBJ had been excused from the Brown’s practice that day. Reports surfaced that that day, Browns Head coach Kevin Stefanski had told the rest of the team earlier in the day that Beckham Jr. was no longer on the team. After these reports were made public, the #FreeOBJ movement picked up a lot of traction, and many famous athletes including Lebron James Tweeted out their support for the movement. Beckham Jr. would once again be excused from practice on Thursday, further fuelling speculation on his status with the team. Finally, on Friday the Browns officially announced that they would be releasing Beckham from his contract with the team.

The on-field chemistry between Beckham Jr. and Mayfield has been the subject of much speculation within the NFL community. When Beckham Jr. first signed with the Browns back in 2019, many fans had hoped that he would share a great connection with the young quarterback. Fan’s expectations would initially be confirmed as Beckham put on some amazing performances during the first half of the 2019 season, averaging over 100 yards per game and scoring some impressive touchdowns. However, the good times would end there because as the season went on, Beckham began performing poorer and poorer. To make matters worse, his attitude on the field began to get worse as well. This culminated in him getting into a heated argument with former Browns head coach, Freddie Kitchens during a game against the Arizona Cardinals. The Browns ended up finishing the season with a 6-10 record. Beckham finished the season with a record of 74 catches for a total of 1099 yards. Browns fans’ hoped that Beckham would be reinstated when it was revealed that Kevin Stefanski would be taking over as the head coach of the Browns. This excited fans of the Browns and Beckham because Beckham had not gotten along with former head coach Freddie Kitchens. Fan’s hopes would quickly be dashed when Beckham tore his ACL halfway through the 2020 season, an injury which would cause him to miss the rest of the season. The Browns would then go onto the Playoffs for the first time since 2002. Upon returning for the 2021 season, Beckham’s performance has been very poor. He has missed several passes that were aimed at him, and even dropped two critical fourth-down passes. In his final game for the Browns, he missed three passes that were intended for him.

With Beckham now a free agent, many teams are said to be interested in signing him. During their game on Sunday, players from both the Minnesota Vikings and the Baltimore Ravens could be seen sporting #FreeOBj shirts, fueling speculation that these two teams may be interested in signing him. The Indianapolis Colts and the Pittsburgh Steelers are also said to be interested in signing Beckham. If Beckham passes waivers on Monday, November 8th he will be free to sign anywhere he wants starting on Tuesday the 9th. Wherever Beckham goes he is sure to bring a lot of attention with him.