David Beckham is selling. Are you buying?

I keep hearing David Beckham say "I’m committed" when it comes to the Los Angeles Galaxy.

But those are just words. He’s committed to the idea of making people believe he’s committed … but that’s about it. The rest is just spin.

Generally speaking, I’m no Beckham basher. The guy is a brand. And that’s how you have to look at things. If you just look at him as another guy who occupies an L.A. Galaxy roster spot, you’ve started from a bad position.

It’s like looking at an $85,000 BMW M5. You just don’t see it the same way you see a $20,000 subcompact. You treat it with more care. You don’t use it the same way. The entire context is different, see?

And so it is with Beckham, who isn’t around just to deliver free kicks and win games, he’s around to win hearts and minds and to deliver absurd sums of cash to the Galaxy and to MLS in general. And I say, "Well done, sir."

So, I judge Beckham and everything around him by a different scale, all against a backdrop of the bigger picture, as I wrote in a previous post.

All that said, the man can’t have it both ways.

You don’t get to say "you’re committed" when you obviously aren’t. (Well, OK, he does "get" to say it. But I’m not letting him get away with it.)

I’m throwing the man a yellow card on this one. Obviously, if you’re showing up with half the season gone, you’re not really committed. He wanted to extend the loan agreement to AC Milan instead of coming over to train and play with the Galaxy for the entire season. No one stuck a gun to his head and forced him to stay in Milan. I don't blame him. But, again, you can't have it both ways.

But let’s let that one slide for the minute. Let’s just address his July 11 arrival date once he did turn in the keys to his Milan timeshare. His first training was four days before Thursday’s Red Bull match.

True, he couldn’t play for the Galaxy before that match due to FIFA rules governing international transfers. But he sure could have shown up in sunny SoCal a bit earlier, getting in more than two full training sessions before his debut. I can tell you with a high degree of assurance, that little timetable hiccup wasn’t lost inside the L.A. Galaxy locker room. People wondered quietly why he didn’t bother to show up a wee bit sooner.

You could see the result of his tardiness in his actions Thursday. He’s certainly not match-fit. Beckham played centrally but was fairly stationary in his movement. His passing was OK, although a bit vanilla. He helped the Galaxy maintain possession with nice, safe passes. That’s OK, but it’s really not what you’d expect from an England international.

I expect that he’ll do more once he’s fully fit. But that’s the point.

Committed? Nah. That’s just his handlers telling him how to spin the whole thing. That’s like the politician, saying one thing and hoping a gullible public will buy what they are selling – even when they are doing exactly the opposite.

I'm not buying it. Are you?