It was the second quarter of Super Bowl LVI against Cincinnati, and Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford had just thrown him a pass on a shallow crosser. The ball hit Beckham’s hands and bounced back toward the quarterback, a brick off a rim, and the wide receiver dropped to the ground without being touched. He grabbed his left knee.

Tears of joy, tears of devastation.

Tears streamed down the cheeks of Odell Beckham Jr.

It was the second quarter of Super Bowl LVI against Cincinnati, and Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford had just thrown him a pass on a shallow crosser. The ball hit Beckham’s hands and bounced back toward the quarterback, a brick off a rim, and the wide receiver dropped to the ground without being touched. He grabbed his left knee.

Beckham knew right away. He couldn’t play anymore. Not that February night in 2022, maybe not ever. One season prior, he had torn the ACL in the same knee, and he remembered what it felt like.

And so the tears flowed as he lay on the field.

He was already damaged goods. In March 2019, the Giants traded him, seven months after making him the highest-paid wide receiver in history with a $95 million contract extension. Just over a year and a half later, he was sacked in the middle of the season by the Browns after a failure to connect with quarterback Baker Mayfield. That same week, the Rams signed him to a three-month contract.

Shortly after, team physician Neal ElAttrache told him he needed to see him. Beckham had breezed through rehab after his ACL surgery in 2020. The knee, however, never felt quite right.

ElAttrache told him why. His physical exam showed the surgery had not repaired anything. There was no ACL holding his knee together. The suggestion was to stop playing and have a second surgery.

Beckham looked ElAttrache up and down.

“There’s no way I’ve been through everything I’ve been through and came here just to have surgery,” he told him.

Only a select few on the team — Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Von Miller and Jalen Ramsey — would know.