Why Odell Beckham Jr giving cash to LSU football players is still a story

Former LSU football wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr garnered plenty of headlines after the Tigers’ championship win against Clemson in January.

On Wednesday, ESPN released a report that alleges that LSU basketball coach Will Wade “either arranged for or offered ‘impermissible payments’ to at least 11 potential recruits or others around them”.

Buried in the ESPN story is a report about the specific amount of cash that former LSU football wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr handed various Tigers on the night of the national championship game against Clemson.

If you recall, after the game, video of Beckham handing out wads of cash on the field surfaced. According to the report from ESPN, the amount of cash was $2,000, which would be a level III NCAA violation.

LSU initially said the money was fake, but that had to be walked back after Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow told Pardon My Take that the money was real.

It’s dumb this is even an issue that LSU football has to deal with

Look, I get that the rules are the rules. But this whole thing is silly.

Sure, Odell Beckham should’ve known better. And it’s annoying that he ended up taking some of the attention away from LSU’s win that night. But I don’t think OBJ, in the moment, realized what his actions would cause. I don’t think he was trying to make the moment about himself.

Beckham was simply happy to see his school win it all. He was celebrating. He was being a superfan. It’s what a lot of LSU fans might’ve done in the same situation.

Ultimately, it just shows how dumb some of these NCAA rules can be. No one is benefitting that much from $2,000 (spread out among multiple players). And no one is attending LSU because they thought OBJ might hand them a couple of hundred dollar bills on the field after a 15-0 season.

It’s asinine to even think that.

Hopefully the NCAA comes to their senses and moves on from this. Of course, with it being the NCAA I wouldn’t count on that actually happening.