Colin Kaepernick’s attorney, Mark Geragos, announced that the collusion lawsuits, brought by Kaepernick and Eric Reid against the NFL for allegedly blackballing both players from being signed to an NFL team has been settled.
Mark Geragos made the following statement on Twitter:
— Mark Geragos (@markgeragos) February 15, 2019
The settlement ends a lawsuit that has hung over the NFL for a nearly a year and half.
At the time of reporting, there have been no details of the agreement, including whether the settlement included monetary compensation, that have been made public.
The NFL Players Association, who has been a staunch advocate for Kaepernick and Reid, released the following statement:
pic.twitter.com/sTpsKOzzKP
— NFLPA (@NFLPA) February 15, 2019
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody who hadn’t heard of Kaepernick’s national anthem protest against police brutality toward African-Americans. This led to a national conversation that culminated in even President Trump weighing in with his “get that son of a bitch off the field” comments.
Kaepernick hasn’t played in a meaningful game since the 2016 season and opted out of his final year of his contract in March 2017.
Since then, he’s been the poster child of ongoing debate and protest and has remained an activist for his cause, donating $1 million to “organizations working in oppressed communities” and founding the “Know Your Rights Camp” that educates inner-city youth on how to interact with local police.
Kaepernick was brought back into the spotlight last year when Nike ran a campaign featuring minority and disabled athletes with Kaepernick serving as narrator and central theme of the ad “Dream Crazy.”
It was reported recently that executives of the newly formed Alliance of American Football had reached out to him in an attempt to have him sign with a team, only to be rebuffed by Kaepernick, stating that he would only sign for a $20 mil contract which is far more than the $250k/3-year salary AAF players make, and almost as much as he made in his 6 years playing in the NFL ($24 mil).
Although we don’t have the details of the settlement, we can say unequivocally that Kaepernick won this battle against the NFL. Even though no judgment was made against the league, the public perception is that Kaepernick had enough of something on the NFL to have them admit and settle with the other side rather than taking this lawsuit all the way.
Does this mean that Kaepernick will be in a uniform anytime soon? Nope. In all likelihood, the terms of his settlement won’t include things like “mandatory” tryouts for teams or have a team forcibly sign him to a deal.
It does make you wonder: If Kaepernick settled with the NFL then what was his ultimate goal in the collusion suit?
Was it to actually get signed on to a team? With his new found celebrity and plethora of opportunities to make money as a speaker, and being that he is well passed his prime, why on earth would he want to put his physical health at risk only to make a fraction of what he could potentially make as an activist icon?
Was it to bring more attention to his cause? If that was the case, then he wouldn’t have settled and pursued through to judgment just to spite the NFL and make his point.
Was it for money? At the time, we don’t really know if there was even any financial compensation.
It’s all speculative until we see the details of the settlement, IF we ever see them.
Stay tuned for updates.
