Last Sunday, Rams receiver Odell Beckham Jr. suffered a non-contact ACL tear during the first half of the Super Bowl, after catching two passes for 52 yards and a touchdown. Beckham will be a free agent in less than a month. Given his looming rehab and the amount of time required to return from the same injury in the same knee (suffered against the same team) in 2020, Beckham won’t be getting a major contract on the open market.
The Rams should sign Beckham to a fair contract that gives him additional compensation for his role in late-season Super Bowl run (it wasn’t insignificant), especially since the non-contact knee injury happened on the team’s home field, which was specifically designed to use artificial turf and not grass. But the Rams aren’t legally required to do anything. In theory, OBJ could be SOL.
He may not be. The Collective Bargaining Agreement provides injury protection for players with non-guaranteed salaries in the season after they suffer an injury that…