CLEVELAND — Editor's note: the video in the player above is from a previous story.
Believe it or not, Odell Beckham Jr. has some remorse about the way his breakup with the Cleveland Browns went down.
“One of the biggest regrets that I have about the way things ended is I just didn’t get -- it’s like having a breakup but there really was no closure and it’s kind of just like you go -- that’s just it," Beckham told reporters in the lead up to Super Bowl 56 last week. "One thing I’ve always been big on in my life is closure. Because I feel like if doors are not closed, they’re always still open."
But when it comes to who got the better of the breakup between Beckham and the Browns, that door was slammed shut on Sunday night.
Three months after he allegedly orchestrated his exit from Cleveland, the three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver was on football's biggest stage. And for the first two quarters of "The Big Game," Beckham was the star of the show, catching the first touchdown of Super Bowl 56 with a 17-yard reception from Matthew Stafford, before adding another 35-yard catch to help set up the Rams' second score of the game in what was ultimately a 23-20 Los Angeles victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
The 29-year-old's MVP-caliber start was ultimately derailed after he suffered a knee injury in the second quarter and it's feared that he may have once again torn his ACL. But by the end of the night, Beckham was a Super Bowl champion, with his emotional celebration being one of the lasting images of Los Angeles' championship run.
"This is everything I've ever dreamed of," he told CBS Sports after the game. "And there was a moment I was in the back room and they told me I was done, I couldn't play. And I had to come back out there and be a part of this because it's so much bigger than myself. And these boys pulled through and made it happen."
The sight of Beckham laying on a confetti-soaked SoFi Stadium field in February would have been tough to imagine a mere few months ago.
By now, you know the story.
After being targeted just once in Cleveland's Week 8 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Beckham reportedly requested a trade. And with just hours to go until the league's trade deadline, his father, Odell Beckham Sr., only inflamed the situation when he posted an 11-minute and 24-second long video clip of quarterback Baker Mayfield missing his son on various throws throughout the 2021 season to his verified Instagram account.
To say that the situation was ugly would be an understatement. But according to the younger Beckham -- who came to terms with the Browns for a release days later -- it was never his intention for his exit to get as messy as it did.
"A lot of things were out of my control. By the time I woke up, the video was already posted, it just was unfortunate," he told reporters last week. "Sometimes things go that way in life and you just kind of have to roll with the punches. I just think about, here I am now and just making the most of the opportunity that I have.”
Whether Beckham intended for his breakup with the Browns to be so chaotic is ultimately inconsequential. What does matter, however, is that Cleveland lost one of its most talented players and has nothing left to show for it -- other than questions at its quarterback and wide receiver positions in the offseason ahead.
Make no mistake, there's plenty of blame to go around.
Over the course of the 28 games they played together, Mayfield and Beckham failed to develop a consistent connection. And while Beckham Sr.'s Instagram post might have been inappropriate, to paraphrase ESPN's Bomani Jones, the LSU product did look open a lot, which could explain why the 2014 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year grew so dissatisfied during his time in Cleveland.
Beckham isn't blameless, either, it's fair to raise an eyebrow at Von Miller telling Sports Illustrated that the wide receiver told him "don't come to Cleveland." But even until the end of his time with the Browns, Beckham -- who had just spent the offseason recovering from a torn ACL -- was playing through injuries. And for what it's worth, despite his ugly exit, he still seems to be plenty popular inside of Cleveland's locker room.
None of that, however, matters now, at least not to Beckham, who helped restore his standing in the league during his three months in Los Angeles. That rang especially true during the Rams' postseason run, in which he caught nine passes for 113 yards during the NFC Championship Game -- his first 100-yard performance since Oct. 13, 2019.
As for Cleveland, the Browns sputtered to a disappointing 8-9 record, thanks in large part to their paltry passing attacking. Say what you will about Beckham, but the Browns definitely didn't get any better after his departure, as some errantly theorized they might.
Having suffered a torn ACL in the same knee for the second time in 16 months, Beckham faces an uphill battle, especially as he prepares to turn 30 later this year. But on Sunday, he secured his place in Super Bowl lore, while the way he wound up in Los Angeles became nothing more than a footnote to everybody outside of Cleveland.