Odell Beckham Jr. is being roasted online by fellow athletes and other NFL personalities for a resurfaced video that went viral over Thanksgiving weekend.
In October 2024 on “The Pivot” podcast with former NFL players Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor, and Channing Crowder, OBJ made a comment about money that many interpreted as tone-deaf, given the majority of Americans are struggling with the rising cost of living.
In the clip, he says, “Bro, you give somebody a five-year $100 million contract, right? What is it really? It’s five years for $60 [million]. You’re getting taxed. Do the math. That’s $12 [million] a year, you know, that you have to spend, use, save, invest, flaunt, like whatever.”
“Just being real. I’ma buy a car. I’ma get my mom a house. Everything costs money. So if you spending $4 million a year, that’s really $40 million over five years — $8 [million] a year — and now you start breaking down the numbers, it’s, like, that’s a five-year span of where you’re getting $8 million. Can you make that last forever?” he continued, adding that people who “ain’t us” couldn’t possibly understand this kind of struggle.
And the response online was essentially: You’re right — we can’t understand your luxury problem of an eight-figure salary.
Jason Whitlock, BlazeTV host of “Fearless,” says OBJ’s real problem is the black culture that’s conditioned him to think that any pushback on his financially “irresponsible behavior” is just racism or white folks selling out black excellence.
“What he’s basically saying is, like, ‘Hey, white people can’t relate. They don’t get it — all the pressure that we’re under and … all the people we have to help,”’ Whitlock translates.
Whitlock — who grew up legitimately poor, spent years grinding to achieve financial success, and had to assume financial responsibility for both his mother and grandmother at a young age — says he knows “the pressure that OBJ is talking about.”
But this kind of pressure isn’t unique to black people. Whitlock says he’s seen his “adoptive family,” who’s white, navigate the same scenario of having money and feeling obligated to help out struggling friends and family.
The pushback OBJ has received for his comments sparked some defensiveness. On December 2, the free agent tweeted:
Whitlock says OBJ’s inability to receive criticism is a result of the “feminized matriarchal culture” of “excuses and delusion” he exists in.
When this is your context, “you end up embracing a lifestyle and an image that will make you [an] old, broke joke — and that’s what OBJ is,” he says.
To hear more of Whitlock’s take, watch the episode above.
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