N.Y. Giants: There is no MiamiGate

From the desk of: DO IT FOR THE DUKE

What is this issue you speak of...?

New York Football Giants: Beckham's Big Blue Brush Off

Odell Beckham Jr. said there is no link between MiamiGate and Sunday's loss to the Packers.

I guess that's it then ... because OBJ said so.

In other words, stay tuned for his next feat of unchecked narcissism, at a time and place of his choosing.

If I didn't fear cultural imprisonment for being a millennial age dissident, I'd swear he was censuring me.

And there's the rub...

This generation wants to be liked, followed, and befriended on social media.  They are intoxicated with the ability to live out and self-promote fantastic, self-idealized lives (whether real, imagined, or otherwise).

World wide social media is completely unique to this generation.  Instant self-exposure, notoriety, and even fame, are now measured by one's digital heat index, or, one's social media activity.  They have somehow weaved real life into a wi-fi fantasy, and vice-versa.  This has even supplanted reality for some.

Make no mistake - modesty has left the building.

Self-aggrandizement is now anthem of the day.

And now for the inescapable culture clash...

Growing up, my generation knew athletes weren't saints, and the older we got the less we wanted to learn about their private lives.  In the 1980s, we still maintained a mind your own business attitude.   Nowadays, every one's business is just a click, or an app away.

That being said, my generation gave birth to these people, who's every day has become its own mini reality adventure for all the world to see and like.  My generation thought they were going to outsmart their kids by spending more time being their friends than being actual parents and risk being the bad guys.

Sarcasm, however, is a trait my generation excels at.  My generation wrote the book on passive aggressive.  We Generation X'ers were angrier than the Baby Boomers.  Where the Boomers said never trust anyone over 30, my generation was telling everyone (including the Boomers) to f*** off.

• A phrase I learned in the 1980s: teenagers are people who will one day grow up to be as stupid as they thought their parents once were.

In a few words, Gen X was defiant, antagonistic, and supremely skeptical.  Said another way, we maintained social circles, social loops, and even social clubs.  But if you weren't mingling, you didn't matter.  Even then, we trusted no one.

Right to privacy still means something to Generation X'ers.  That's why the willingness of millennials to live their lives on public social media assaults our senses.

Odell is right.  Technically, without accountability, there's no link.

I'm just gonna have to suck it up.

Shame on me for not being a professional athlete.

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Jerry Reese said the Giants will help Odell Beckham Jr. with the process of growing up.

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Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.  Victor Cruz had it within his power to avoid any and all controversies.  I place full responsibility of MiamiGate on him for failing to implement leadership.