Cleveland Browns’ Odell Beckham Jr. Wears Grinch-Themed Cleats

Well, Cleveland may have gotten a lump of coal with that loss to the Baltimore Ravens today, but star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. brought the holiday cheer during warmups today. The NFL Superstar has been sporting different cleats all year in warmups and Sunday meant it was time to get in the Christmas spirit with The Grinch. The green furry cleats were a different version of the boots he usually wears on game days. Those are influenced by the Air More Uptempo from Nike, a 1990s silhouette famously worn by Scottie Pippen on the NBA hardwood for the Chicago Bulls. The piping that spells out Beckham’s initials is striped to resemble candy canes. This isn’t the first time the star has had some fun moments with footwear during the winter months. A couple of years ago, he had light Christmas presents on his cleats while playing with the New York Giants. This year though, his first in Cleveland hasn’t been a ton of fun. The Brown sit at 6-9 with a chance to basically match their record from last year with a win against the lowly Cincinnati Bengals next weekend to head into the new year of uncertainty.

Earlier this year, Beckham found himself under fire for his Joker cleats during a game against the Denver Broncos. He and his closest friend on the team, Jarvis Landy, were both given warnings for their choice of footwear doing that contest. NFL officials told the teammates that they had to change shoes to adhere to the league’s uniform policy or be thrown out. Many fans felt like this was a bit of an overreaction as the cleats in question were mostly white and orange. But, rules are rules and the two promptly changed to try and help the Browns, but they also ended up losing that game to a backup quarterback-led Denver team.

Obviously, the movie had a very big effect on a lot of people and the two players were just expressing their appreciation for the film. Joker director Todd Phillips said that the movie wasn’t exactly dangerous as the film managed to take over the cultural imagination earlier this fall.

“The movie makes statements about a lack of love, childhood trauma, lack of compassion in the world. I think people can handle that message,” Phillips explained to IGN, and suggested that those who criticize the film without having seen it are in the wrong.

“I think that, for most of us, you’re able to tell the difference between right and wrong,” Joaquin Phoenix added during the same interview. “And those that aren’t are capable of interpreting anything in the way that they may want to. People misinterpret lyrics from songs. They misinterpret passages from books. So I don’t think it’s the responsibility of a filmmaker to teach the audience morality or the difference between right or wrong.”