Venus Vs Mars Pt.II

Chapter 37

It was one thing to be athlete, but it was a whole different thing to be athlete and talented in other sports than the one you were payed to play. Somehow he could dunk on a seven foot rim, could pitch a 60 mile an hour baseball and it get called as a strike, and dribble a soccer ball. It was no wonder he was so popular, he was attractive and good at everything his hands and feet touched. Odell was just as big over seas as he was in America and it was his turn for the NFL to send one of its most popular Wide Receivers to Germany in hopes of gaining overseas popularity to the American sport of football.

"I'm five eleven... I like to say I'm six foot... But I'm probably... I'm lying if I say that." Odell slightly smiled as he rubbed his eye. "I broke my back when I was a sophomore in high school and I never slept. So I think all of those combined got me to five eleven. I probably could of stretched that six foot if I would of got two more hours of sleep." 

"Do you think that's a disadvantage or a problem that your not the biggest guy on the field?" The interviewer asked with a thick German accent. 

"Uuhh sometimes in life your delt with certain cards. s**t, you may have a shitty hand but hey, if you playing spades right and I have a bad hand but my partner has a good one you make it work, you just make it work. I never looked at my height as a disadvantage what so ever, to some it might be... I mean I can't change it. Do I want to be six foot? Yea. But..." Odell shrugged his shoulders. His height had never been a road block for the simple fact that his athleticism on the football field made up for it. 

"Do you always get asked about your skills in other sports? I mean, we've watched you play football, we've watched you play softball, we've watched you play soccer. What can't you do?" Odell gave a generous smile as the interviewer gave him a slight compliment. 

"I played all these sports as a kid. I started playing soccer when I was three years old and played until I was about 14, that was my first sport. My coach was pushing to try and get me on the national team and tryout. At that age, you're 13, 14 years old you know that to make it big in soccer you are probably going to have to go overseas. Obviously that would be a goal and that would be the dream. At that age it would have been hard for me to leave my family and just go. So that's when I kind of put the soccer dreams aside and stuck close to home with the other sports." Odell leaned his head to the side, he paused his speech. As if he was debating on whether to say the next few words that had come to his mind. "With soccer not being an American sport, you kind of have to push certain things aside to be fully dedicated to it." He paused again, contemplating even harder. He rubbed the left side of his beard then pulled at the hairs on his chin. "My... My fiancé had to give up three quarters of her UCLA soccer season in order to play for the U-20 and then eventually get drafted to a league team and also move up to the National team. So you really gotta pick and choose in order to be that top athlete." Odell said, finally admitting to his relationship with Massy. Aside from the constant need for the media to have a story to post about her and Jordan's friendship, there was finally verbal proof that the two were still very much together and happy. It was also the first Odell publicly referred to Massy as his fiancé, considering how private of a person he was.

The interviewer smiled a toothy grin, Odell held his breath as he began to rethink his actions in bringing up his fiancé, silently praying that the next few questions won't consistent of his personal relationship. "Yes! It is a big time consuming sport. It is one of those sports that you have to start at a young age. Odell let out the breath that was stuck in his throat. He could only imagine how awkward it would of been if he had to tell the man he didn't want to talk about something. "Between football coming to this country and soccer going to America... The swapping of these sports do you think the fans have a greater appreciation for the game?!.. For each other game.

Odell's body relaxed as he leaned back in the chair. "The fans here are absolutely amazing. The amount of noise they make at soccer games.. The love they have for it and watching it." Odell said smiling and shaking his head. "If we could put those fans in our stadium... Man, because it's really that outside noise that really gets you going. When they're booing you it makes you want to go harder and when they're cheering for you it makes you want to go harder." He finished feeling at ease with the rest of the interview.

Odell's visit just wasn't all work. As he partied along side Olympic track runner Usain Bolt and German professional soccer player David Alaba, though he was out of the country and he could clearly see the difference between his country and and others. This wasn't his first time out of the country, but it was his first out of the country while being engaged and though the German paparazzi could care less about his personal relationship with Massy as they followed the three athletes snapping photos every second, being surrounded by young women having a great time, those photos would eventually hit the internet making their way to America, where instead of the regular German articles of Odell having fun with friends, he would be out with women. Completely leaving out that he was really out with three male friends.