New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. took the NFL by storm last season thanks to a rookie year which saw him haul in 91 receptions for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns and which was punctuated by perhaps the single greatest one-handed reception in NFL history and capped by an Offensive Rookie of the Year award.
Beckham, already set to grace the cover of Madden NFL 16 at age 22, making him the youngest player ever to do so, has garnered ample goodwill with NFL and Giants fans everywhere in the span of just one season.
His latest comments may change that a bit.
Beckham, when asked recently by The Huffington Post what he would change about the NFL if he could, offered a simple response.
"I think that we should make more money, personally," Beckham said.
While it may seem ill-advised for a player with just one professional year under his belt to go around shilling for extra cash - especially when his rookie deal will pay him just under $10.5 million over four years and the median American household income was somewhere in the vicinity of $53,891 in June 2014 - but his reasoning is actually pretty sound and seems to show an ample amount of consideration on the part of the electrifying young wideout.
I understand that basketball plays 80-something games, baseball plays this many games, soccer plays that many games, but this is a sport that's most-watched in America. A sport where there's more injuries. There's more collisions.
It's not even a full-contact sport, I would call it a full-collision sport. You have people running who can run 20 miles per hour and they're running downhill to hit you, and you're running 18 miles per hour. That's a car wreck.
It's just the careers are shorter. There's injuries that you have after you leave the game, brain injuries, whatever it is, nerve injuries. And it's just something that I feel as if there's no way someone who -- even if they did their three or four years in the league -- should have to worry about money for the rest of their lives.
As The Post notes, Forbes reports that the average NFL players made $2 million in 2013, which is less than the average player in the NHL, NBA and MLB. The NFL also had the lowest minimum salary at $420,000.
While no average American is going to cry for the finances of a professional athlete, the NFL does enjoy far greater viewership than any of the other three major sports leagues and the players do seem to suffer greatly during their post-playing days.
A federal judge recently approved a concussion lawsuit settlement between the NFL and thousands of former players. Per The Associated Press, the NFL could owe approximately $1 billion over the next 65 years.
Beckham believes the league should provide better compensation for players at the outset of their careers to help offset the medical costs later.
Out of the gate I feel as if there could be more money up front for the players. I'm not a player rep or anything, but speaking on what I've seen and I can see how those '30 for 30's and people go broke and stuff like that. Tomorrow's never promised. So I feel as if that they should all have been compensated for being in the NFL and being on a team. I understand we have more players, but look, there has to be some way to balance that out.
Beckham, like all NFL players, is fortunate to be in the position he is in - playing a game professionally for millions of dollars.
Yes, there are inherent physical risks - whether that's worth the money and the fame and glory that comes during a career which averages about 3.3 years, is up to the players to decide.
Beckham clearly believes it is, but as we've seen already this offseason with former 49ers linebacker Chris Borland, not all players feel the same.
