Odell Beckham Jr.’s legal fight against Nike has ended, and both sides are declaring victory.
An Oregon jury in county circuit court ruled Thursday that neither side would pay up the damages each were seeking in the breach of contract case. Beckham sued The Swoosh in 2022 saying it withheld royalties, and Nike countersued, claiming Beckham broke their deal by customizing his gloves and publicizing the contract.
The jury ultimately split the baby, ruling that neither side ever breached the contract in any step of the process: Nike withholding royalties, Beckham customizing his gloves, and Beckham sharing the terms of the deal. The jury even said Nike waived the right to penalize Beckham for certain glove designs, according to the Portland Business Journal.
Beckham wanted $862,000, and Nike wanted between $7 million and $15 million, according to the Portland Business Journal. All in all, Beckham’s claims from his original lawsuit added up to about $20 million, but those were dismissed by the trial court and now move to the appeal process, the outlet reported.
The freshly inked Miami Dolphin celebrated the verdict on social media with a photo of himself and his smiling legal team.
“JUST DO……RIGHT,” Beckham posted, tagging the company. “I wanna take this moment to thank God first and foremost thank you Heavenly Father. I wanna thank my team for every hour they have spent preparing on this case. I wanna thank the jury for simply doing what’s right in a world full of wrong… my message to whoever needs this is, STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN! JUSTICE WAS SERVED!!!”
Nike quickly swooped in to make sure people knew it wasn’t found of any wrongdoing, and this wasn’t a clear-cut win for Beckham.
“With this verdict, all of Mr. Beckham’s claims have been decided against him without any monetary award. The decision confirmed that Nike complied with its commitments. Nike is grateful to the jury and the Court for their careful attention to this case,” the company said in a statement to Complex.
Nike fought its onetime star endorser hard at the trial, showing photos where Beckham covered up the swoosh logo in his glove customizations, text messages where Beckham seemed to understand he was violating his contract with certain gloves, and text messages showing Beckham shared the contract with several media outlets, according to the Portland Business Journal. Meanwhile, Beckham’s team argued Nike “manufactured glove penalties to use as leverage,” the outlet reported.
