New York Giants

Odell Beckham's 'smile-gate' is the silliest controversy of the NFL season

Published Dec. 9, 2016 12:53 p.m. ET

Chris Chase

Because there's never a controversy the New York City tabloids can't create, inflate or perpetuate, New York Giants coach Ben McAdoo was forced this week to explain why his star player, the mercurial wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., was seen smiling on the sideline on Sunday — apparently a capital crime now — after Pittsburgh's Antonio Brown scored a touchdown that put the Steelers up 11-0 in a game they'd go on to win 24-14.

The rookie coach responded to reporters on Monday:

Ben McAdoo, facial expression expert. It must be why he has the mustache — to mask his own emotions.

Players smiling or laughing on the sideline is a constant source of non-news in the 24/7 sports world that always needs something to debate in the papers, online, on TV or for local sports radio. It's often overblown but nonetheless frustrating to fans who tend to hate such acts. A player laughing or smiling during a loss gives off the vibe that he doesn't care — that the game is just a frivolous endeavor and the result is trivial. If fans are going to be angered and frustrated by a loss — spending all day yelling at the TV, angrily texting their friends, breaking their remotes and going to work Monday depressed — then, dammit, so should the players. (Derek Anderson had one of the more famous incidents in recent memory, not because of his actions but because of his reaction to the reaction of his actions.)

And I'll agree that there are some situations where a laugh, smile or jovial attitude can be a sign of apathy. When you can't tell if you're looking at the winning or losing locker room, whether it be because players are yukking it up or the music is so loud you could close your eyes and swear you were in a club in Ibiza, that's a red flag. It doesn't mean losing players need drape themselves in black and whisper in hushed tones while Morrissey plays in the background, but there's a certain tone that a locker room should have after a loss. The locker rooms that care are easy to spot, and they tend to include the best franchises, like the Patriots or Spurs. (Heck, I'd bet some winning New England locker rooms have less of a celebratory air than a handful of losing ones around the NFL.)

To some degree, it's always amazed me how players can spend three hours physically pounding on and mentally loathing their opponents and then smile after a game like they'd just played pickup down at the Y. I like that baseball players don't mingle after games and that, during the playoffs, NBA players walk off the court without acknowledging their opponents (except, usually, in a decisive game when sportsmanship dictates they should). But that's just me — someone who still gets noticeably angry whenever I think about a call on Chris Paul that fouled him out of a second-round NCAA tournament game in 2004. I like it when the players care, which is partly why I'm attracted to college sports, where the players appear to be affected more by wins and losses. Looks can be deceiving, though.

In the end, the only thing that matters is how hard you play on the field. What's worse — going through the motions and then screaming about the loss to reporters or giving it 100 percent and laughing when you know you've been bested? There are plenty of athletes who will look indifferent on the sideline because they are, indeed, indifferent. How else are you supposed to look? We praise players for controlling their emotions, get mad when they don't show enough emotion, criticize them when they pull a Dez Bryant and rip them when they smile? They can't win.

A reaction to winning or losing is more telling, I'd say, and it's usually just in team sports. In individual sports you can almost always identify the victor. I mean, would Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Roger Federer or Serena Williams ever be seen laughing it up after a loss? Then again, if Tiger smiles on the 13th hole, we're not crushing him for not caring, either.

You can't read someone's mind and shouldn't attribute meaning to a split-second of their day. If Beckham was clowning around on the sideline for the entire game, mugging for fans, laughing at the Kiss Cam and telling his teammates jokes while making wild gesticulations then, yeah, rip him all you want. Smiling for an instant, though?

This particular case is especially silly because Odell Beckham is one of the most competitive players in the league. No one should ever accuse him of not caring enough. It may be more appropriate to criticize him for caring too much. He may not run out every route, be in control of his emotions (sometimes leading to flags) or always be the best teammate, but the dude wants to win, and flashing a smile 23 minutes into a two-score game — especially when it comes after his buddy and receiving rival Antonio Brown catches a touchdown (something that affirms McAdoo's 'OK, now it's my turn' explanation) — won't convince me otherwise.