PASSING JUDGMENT
Former Niners QB Kaepernick sets wheels in motion for NFL collusion fight. Broken collarbone shelves Rodgers, Brady breaks win mark.
Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who remains unemployed after a 2016 season in which he began the movement of players protesting during the national anthem, has filed a grievance accusing NFL teams of improperly colluding to keep him out of the league, according to a person familiar with the case.
Kaepernick reportedly has retained an attorney to pursue the collusion claim, and, according to the source, it will be Kaepernick’s outside legal representation and not the NFL Players Association primarily in charge of preparing and presenting his grievance.
The collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ union prohibits teams from conspiring to make decisions about signing a player. But the CBA also says the mere fact that a player is unsigned and evidence about the player’s qualifications to be on an NFL roster do not constitute proof of collusion.
For that reason, such cases are difficult to prove, according to legal experts.
“There has to be some evidence of an agreement between multiple teams not to sign a player,” said Gabriel Feldman, the director of the sports law program at Tulane University. “Disagreement over personnel decisions, as obvious as it may seem to someone looking at this, does not provide evidence of collusion. There has to be some evidence of an explicit or implied agreement. There has to be proof of a conspiracy.”
Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers following last season, making him a free agent eligible to sign with any team. He has remained out of work, being passed over by other teams in favour of other quarterbacks.
More recently, the Tennessee Titans signed Brandon Weeden to provide depth behind backup Matt Cassel when their starting quarterback, Marcus Mariota, was hurt. That signing seemed particularly inflammatory to Kaepernick supporters who cited Kaepernick’s superior career accomplishments. Kaepernick has led the 49ers to a Super Bowl and two NFC championship games and he threw16 touchdown passes with four interceptions for them last season.
Kaepernick refused to stand for the national anthem before games last season to protest, he said, racial inequality and police mistreatment of African Americans in the United States. Those protests were taken up by other players, and the controversy over them has been amplified this season even with Kaepernick out of the league. Some media members have contended since the off-season that Kaepernick was being blackballed by NFL teams based on his political stance. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and owners were asked about that contention on a number of occasions and denied that teams were acting in concert on Kaepernick because of his protests.
“Each team makes individual decisions on how they can improve their team,” Goodell said in May.