Odell's daddy wanted him to play soccer, because of the injury problems he had in the NFL. Odell Beckham Sr. was a jackrabbit running back-receiver at Marshall High School in Texas, and was a two-time all-SEC selection at LSU.
Fans down in Baton Rouge still talk about the 1992 "Dream Season". They hired Mouse Davis as their head coach in 1990, and he built an offense that just turned Odell Sr. loose.
In '92, Beckham rushed for 1,471 yards, lead the nation in all-purpose yards, 24 total touchdowns, broke a lot of Billy Cannon's and Dalton Hillard's records....Oh, he won the Heisman Trophy, too.
He had 4 touchdowns vs. Florida in the inaugural SEC Championship game, and then they beat up Miami at the Sugar Bowl for the national championship.
He had a good combine, but so many people looked at his size. He fell to the second round, when the Denver Broncos grabbed him in the 2nd round.
John Elway LOVED him. He was their Eric Metcalf. Fast, shifty, caught ball out of the backfield. Averaged 1,300 yards combined for six year, even playing hurt.
Played in three Super Bowls as a Bronco, Super Bowl XXIX, where the lost a wild one to the 49ers, 49-40, but Beckham scored three different ways (reception, kick return, and the first punt return touchdown in Super Bowl history), Super Bowl XXXII where Beckham caught a touchdown pass, and threw a key block to helped John Elway score the winning touchdown on a 20-yard scamper with :35 left to beat the Packers 38-31...and then in Super Bowl XXIII, helped Mr. Elway retire in style, 8 catches, 201 yards 2 touchdowns... The Broncos belted the Falcons 54-25.
In 1999, he left in Free agent back home to New Orleans for the Saints, played three injury plagued years there before retiring in 2002.
Odell didn't want the post-career surgeries for his son, that way he steered Odell Jr. into soccer, even though Odell loved gridiron football too.
Odell Jr. was a star in THREE sport at Isidore Newman Academy in New Orleans. You might have heard of it. Archie Manning's boys went there, and Odell was the next big thing..and he was a big thing in football and soccer.
He also was headliner in the school play his senior year. Now you know where he gets that flamboyant streak from. The sporting press in Europe call him "Black Zlatan", with good reason.
Odell got noticed by the ODP with US Soccer. When he made the US Soccer's 17-Under national team as
14 year old and showed out at the FIFA 17-Under World Cup (golden boot for the tournament), People noticed.
He really didn't get the full shine until around his junior year at Newman Academy. He when was Louisiana player of the year in both forms of football, and the offers came in from LSU, Texas, Alabama, USC, everybody with a dollar and a dream.
And there were Soccer offers, too. Creighton, UConn, St. Louis, Stanford, Portland.
MLS teams came calling. LigaMX said they'd put in a team
in New Orleans to get him. Now I'd like to know when New Orleans became a part of Mexico.
I'm glad he signed with Munich. It was best thing for him and he's playing well and he's hungry to be great. I'm also glad to US Soccer ditched Bruce Arena, who didn't understand how to use a player like Odell Junior. Grabbing
Zinedine Zidane when Real Madrid was jerking around his contract was a "coup with a coup" for US Soccer! I'm telling ya, sweeping out Sunil Gulati and bringing in Taylor Twellman as CEO was HUGE, and I think some point in Odell Beckham Jr.'s international career, this team going to make a big run in a World Cup.
Move over, David. There's a new Beckham bending in.