CLEVELAND — It did not take long for Cleveland Browns fans to embrace the idea of wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. catching down-the-field passes from quarterback Baker Mayfield and alongside his college teammate, Jarvis Landry.
With Mayfield emerging as a leader for the offense and Landry and Beckham Jr. combining their forces with the productivity of Nick Chubb carrying the ball out of the backfield, there is a palpable excitement level in Cleveland, and that was evident to the newest member of the Browns.
“I can feel the excitement,” Beckham Jr. said during his introductory press conference Monday. “To be a part of that, it is exciting for me.
“You want to be around guys who want to win, you want to be around fans who want -- I can’t even put it into words. I am sorry. It is just a lot, and it is a lot for the city of Cleveland, I feel like. Like I said, it is a football town. I have heard it is a football town. I’m looking forward to finding out.”
Fans have come up with some creative ways of showing their excitement since Beckham Jr.’s arrival in a trade from the New York Giants on the first day of the new league year: March 13.
Along with “Avengers”-themed trailers, a Disney movie parody emerged in the days following the trade.
Several local fans combined their talents to write, produce and edit a parody video of the song, “A Whole New World” from the Disney animated film, “Aladdin.” Entitled “A Whole New Land,” the video has actors portraying Mayfield and Beckham Jr. on a magic carpet ride through Cleveland.
“I got a lot of love from the fans when I was here,” Beckham Jr. said. “That is what I asked (Landry) about. ‘How was it?’ That is one thing we talked about -- love. Just to see that kind of culture is different. It is just different.”
The video begins with Mayfield extending a helping hand to Beckham Jr., and then, the two shared a magic carpet ride around the city of Cleveland.
“I can show you The Land, cloudy, cold, but friendly,” sung the actor portraying Mayfield. “Tell me Odell, now when did you last let your heart decide. You can silence the crowd from drafting blunder by blunder, over The Shoreway and under on a Cleveland carpet ride.
“A whole new world. A new, affordable point of view. Someone to catch my throws and make Pro Bowls, they’ll say we’re only winning.”
Beckham Jr.’s character followed with, “A struggling team I’ll improve, and if I move this far, I’ll be the star and maybe win a Super Bowl with you.”
“Something that I told O was that the love and the appreciation of everybody that works in this building, from top to bottom, is something that made me feel so comfortable -- the way that it feels like family here,” Landry said.
“I told him that he would appreciate that. He would appreciate that he could come here and honestly just be himself and people would love him for that. That was my pitch. That was it.”
