CLEVELAND — Editor's note: the video in the player above is from a previous story.
Prior to his debut with the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night, Odell Beckham Jr. told ESPN's Lisa Salters that it was never his intention to get released by the Cleveland Browns.
But according to one prominent NFL reporter, that isn't necessarily true.
Appearing on the Thursday Night Football pregame show last week, Fox Sports' Jay Glazer discussed Beckham's departure from Cleveland, which led to him signing as a free agent with the Rams. In doing so, Glazer revealed that the three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver had been trying to find a way to get to Los Angeles for years -- even after being traded from the New York Giants to the Browns in 2019.
"Odell had been wanting to play for the Rams since [head coach] Sean McVay got there," Glazer said. "Even after he got traded to Cleveland, he was still going, 'Can I still get traded to the Rams?'"
Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday, Glazer shared even more details regarding Beckham's Browns release and how he ultimately wound up on the Rams.
"The other teams were courting Odell. Odell wanted to go to L.A. the whole time," Glazer said. "Odell looked at it like who didn't care if he was going to make the league minimum [salary] because he's going to make more money off the field in L.A. than he would on the field somewhere else.
"Odell's been trying to go to the Rams for a long time. Even after he got traded to the Browns, I remember talking to him and he's like, 'Dude, you've gotta help me get traded to the Rams.' And I'm like, 'Dude, it doesn't work like that, bro. You can't get traded twice in four days.'"
Glazer also shared his insights into Beckham's release from the Browns, which he said almost didn't happen.
After being unable to fulfill the LSU product's request to be dealt ahead of the Nov. 2 trade deadline, Glazer said that Cleveland intended to keep him on its roster. It was only after Beckham's father, Odell Beckham Sr., 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 and Beckham's friend, NBA superstar LeBron James, took to Twitter to encourage the Browns to part ways with the 2014 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year that the team ultimately decided to release him.
"Originally, he asked for his release when they traded trade him and the said, 'No.' Originally, they said, 'No.' Kevin Stefanski didn't want to trade him," Glazer said. "And then when the video came out and the LeBron tweet and all that -- his silence was deafening there. So they just said, 'OK, we don't want this to become an even bigger issue.'"
After going unclaimed on waivers, Beckham agreed to a one-year contract with the Rams. In his debut with Los Angeles on Monday, he caught two passes for 18 yards as the Rams lost 31-10 to the 49ers.