New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr has expressed his belief that NFL players should receive higher salaries.
The 22-year-old made an instant impact in the league in his rookie season as he displayed athleticism and speed to be named Offensive Rookie of the Year.
However, Beckham feels that he and his colleagues are not paid enough in comparison to other sports, such as baseball and basketball, which he believes is not fair considering the physicality of the NFL and the toil players put their bodies through.
Beckham told The Huffington Post: "I think that we should make more money, personally 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."
Beckham recorded 91 receptions for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns in the 2014 season.
Simon Sinclair
