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Cheer up, Browns fans, mandatory minicamp is about to get a whole lot more interesting.
Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. confirmed on his Instagram account (because this is the 2019 Cleveland Browns, a team built for social media) that he will be in Cleveland in time for the start of minicamp on June 4.
Beckham confirmed his arrival in response to a complaint about him missing the majority of the team’s voluntary Organized Team Activities, according to cleveland.com:
“I’ll be there on the 3rd, u coming?’’
The past few weeks have been filled with more agita from media members and fans about Beckham than should be possible for any one offseason. It didn’t matter that other players missed OTAs, Beckham was at the center of attention.
.@TonyGrossi joins us now on Odell: "They were hoping he would show up at least once a week...36 years I've been covering the Browns and I've never seen anything like this...there's no reasonable explanation why he's missing."
— Aaron Goldhammer (@HammerNation19) May 31, 2019
There are plenty of things in life that are “voluntary” but are also important, valuable and helpful to do/attend. Why didn’t everyone skip them if they were so insignificant?
— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) May 31, 2019
No Odell Beckham Jr. or Duke Johnson at #Browns OTAs todays. It’s 9 of 10. Odell has been to one. Duke none
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) May 30, 2019
That focus will now shift from “where is Beckham” to “why did you not attend OTAs” as the Browns wrap up the final team activities before the start of training camp in late July. (If we’re lucky, maybe someone will toss in an actual football question or two.)
More than likely this has all been much ado about nothing. Some players take the “voluntary” part of voluntary OTAs more seriously than others, and Beckham falls into that camp.
As long as he is ready to go when the season opens on September 8 - and there is little reason to believe otherwise - then no one will care what Beckham was up to during the month of May.