NFL decides to pay Kaepernick to go away
Late Friday announcement of secret resolution tells you who won this standoff
For nearly two years, NFL owners wanted Colin Kaepernick to shut up and go away.
Now they’re effectively paying him to do it.
What else are we to conclude from the surprising news that dropped Friday afternoon?
In a joint statement, the league and lawyers for Kaepernick and safety Eric Reid — the two NFL players who sparked the “anthem protest” — announced this:
“For the past several months, counsel for Mr. Kaepernick and Mr. Reid have engaged in an ongoing dialogue with representatives of the NFL. As a result of those discussions, the parties have decided to resolve the pending grievances. The resolution of this matter is subject to a confidentiality agreement so there will be no further comment by any party.”
Look, as big-buzz out-of-court settlements generally go, the more embarrassing the secret, the more someone is willing to pay to keep it secret. In this case, the dots to be connected are so numerous, and so closely spaced, that one glance reveals the obvious final picture and renders the connecting exercise superfluous.
As background, Kaepernick quarterbacked the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012 and to a second straight NFC championship game berth in 2013 before his quality of play and the level of talent surrounding him both dissolved fast. Reid had been regarded from 2013-16 as one of the league’s better free safeties.
The so-called, wrongly named “anthem protest” movement began in August 2016, when Kaepernick began not standing — at first sitting alone on the bench, then eventually kneeling on the sideline — while the pre-game national anthem played.
He said the idea was not to disrespect the Star Spangled Banner, the flag, the military or any other emblem of patriotic love south of the border. Rather, he and a growing number of player protesters said the kneel-downs were intended to bring wider awareness to the deplorable social, criminal and racial injustices that continue to torment people of colour in America.
Following his first start of the 2016 season, in October in Buffalo, Kaepernick said the following in answer to those who insisted his protests were un-American:
“I don’t understand what’s un-American about fighting for liberty and justice for everybody, for the equality that this country says it stands for,” Kaepernick said.
“To me, I see it as very patriotic and American to uphold the United States to the standards that it says it lives by. That’s something that needs to be addressed. Until (we) as people recognize and address that some of us have privileges and some of us don’t, and some of us are able to do certain things without consequences, and others of us can’t, (things won’t change).
“Me, as a black man that plays football and is considered a celebrity — I’m treated differently than a black man that’s working nine to five in the ’hood. And that’s just the reality of it. And it shouldn’t be.”
Twelve months later, in October 2017, Reid joined Kaepernick in filing a grievance against the NFL. They charged orchestrated collusion, after no teams signed Kaepernick following the 2016 season.
Numerous NFL executives and owners — including commissioner Roger Goodell and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft — were deposed as the grievance inched along, with some even reportedly asked to turn over cellphones, as the arbitrator sought evidence to prove or disprove the players’ charge.
When Reid became a free agent last March, no NFL team signed him through training camp. Finally, the Carolina Panthers signed Reid in September.
After an effective 2018 season, the Panthers re-signed him earlier this week to a reported US$22-million, three-year deal.
In the meantime, Kaepernick remains unsigned. Bottom line, know this:
For Kaepernick and Reid by Friday to agree to forever bury deep into the ground any such potential “gotcha” conversations among owners or league executives, or other possibly indicting NFL testimony revealed before the arbitrator; and for the league to agree to settle this matter with that duo before the arbitrator’s judgment could be rendered, complete with publicly released evidence; and for the league to agree to have the above “resolution” announced on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend of sorts in America, tells you all you need to know about who won and who lost this case.
And who’s right, and who’s wrong.