Odell Beckham Jr. returns to Cleveland

Our long national nightmare is over as Odell Beckham Jr. has returned to Cleveland.

Well, technically, he returned to team headquarters in Berea on Monday. Befitting a team built for the social media age, Beckham was spotted in the locker room at the team’s facility during a live Instagram video posted by wide receiver Antonio Callaway.

It is the first time that Beckham has been spotted at team HQ since his introductory press conference on April 1. That absence during the early stages of the offseason workout programs have caused a fair amount of agita for some, but it is also a part of the modern NFL, where players can skip the voluntary portion of the workouts.

The Browns are back for the start of Organized Team Activities, a series of 10 practices over a three-week period where players go against each other in drills without pads or contact.

The first OTA session runs Tuesday through Thursday of this week, with Wednesday’s session being open to the media. If Beckham is not spotted on the field that day, the panic meter in some corners of Browns Town will ratchet up even higher.

Of course, this week’s OTA sessions, as well as the ones that will take place May 21-23 and May 28-31 are all voluntary, per the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union. So if Beckham does not want to workout with the team, their continues to be nothing that general manager John Dorsey or head coach Freddie Kitchens can do about it.

After OTAs come to a completion, the Browns will hold a mandatory minicamp from June 4 through June 6. Beckham will most certainly be there for the final team activities before the start of training camp later in the summer.