Kaepernick, 34, gets workout with Raiders
Colin Kaepernick is getting his first chance to work out for an NFL team since last playing in the league in 2016 when he started kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality.
Kaepernick, 34, was to work out for the Las Vegas Raiders on Wednesday, multiple sources reported.
Kaepernick hasn't played since the end of the 2016 season when he was cut by San Francisco when the new regime led by coach Kyle Shanahan wanted to go a different direction at quarterback.
Kaepernick never got another opportunity even to work out for NFL teams as he alleged he had been blackballed over his protests during the anthem the previous season. He met with Seattle and had informal talks with Baltimore but never got a closer look.
He filed a grievance with the NFL in 2017 over his lack of opportunity and settled it in 2019 — but still never got another look.
Owner Mark Davis has publicly said he would back his coaches if they wanted to take a look at Kaepernick, and first-year coach Josh McDaniels is doing just that.
The Raiders don't have a glaring need at quarterback after signing starter Derek Carr to an extension last month. Las Vegas also signed Nick Mullens as a backup this offseason, traded for Jarrett Stidham and signed Chase Garbers as an undrafted free agent.
But none of those backups has the pedigree of Kaepernick, who emerged as one of the league's young stars when he took over as starter in San Francisco in 2012, and helped the Niners reach the Super Bowl that season.
Kaepernick's play started to regress in 2014 and he got hurt halfway through the next season and lost his starting job. Things changed the next preseason when Kaepernick began protesting during the national anthem, drawing the ire of critics that included then presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Kaepernick regained his starting job in 2016 and threw 16 TD passes and four interceptions in 12 games, while posting a 90.7 passer rating.
• The NFL said it will appeal a ruling denying a request to move former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden's lawsuit against the league from a public courtroom into closed-door arbitration. Gruden's lawsuit accuses the NFL of leaking his racist, sexist and homophobic emails to force him to resign last October.
“Neither the NFL nor the Commissioner (Roger Goodell) leaked Coach Gruden's offensive emails,” the league said in a statement issued after Clark County District Court Judge Nancy Allf rejected league bids to dismiss Gruden's claim outright or to order out-of-court talks that could be overseen by Goodell.
The judge pointed to Gruden's allegation that the league intentionally leaked only his documents. She said that could show evidence of “specific intent,” or an act designed to cause a particular result.
The judge's ruling in the case that Gruden filed last November marked the first public skirmish in what could become a long legal battle pitting the coach who departed the Raiders with more than six seasons remaining on his record 10year, $100 million contract against Goodell.
Goodell did not attend the hearing. The civil case alleges contract interference and conspiracy by the league and seeks monetary damages for Gruden.
“The court's denial of our motion to dismiss is not a determination on the merits of Coach Gruden's lawsuit,” said the NFL statement provided by spokesman Brian McCarthy.
The NFL has a responsibility to act, league attorney Kannon Shanmugam argued in court, in cases involving “conduct detrimental to the best interest of the league or professional football.”
Gruden attorney Adam Hosmer-Henner told the judge that putting the case in the hands of Goodell, a named defendant in the lawsuit, would pose an “unconscionable” conflictof-interest.
Gruden accuses the NFL and Goodell of destroying his career and scuttling endorsement contracts by releasing emails that no one disputes Gruden sent — and that Shanmugam told the judge contained “racist, misogynistic and homophobic” language unfit for repetition in a public courtroom. Some also reportedly derided Goodell.
Attorneys said the electronic messages came from among some 650,000 obtained by the league almost a year ago during a probe of the workplace culture of the Washington NFL franchise now called the Commanders.
“What is going to be an issue is (the league) ... leaking those emails to the press, selectively, and then demanding that Mr. Gruden be fired by the Raiders,” HosmerHenner said.
Gruden coached the Raiders on Oct. 10, two days after the Wall Street Journal reported he had used a racist term to describe NFL union chief DeMaurice Smith. Gruden resigned the following day, shortly after The New York Times revealed additional offensive emails.
“They pressured the Raiders to fire him,” Hosmer-Henner told the judge. “And when the Raiders didn't, and he coached through that weekend, (the league) continued to threaten that more documents would be leaked.”
• The Pittsburgh Steelers stayed in-house to find Kevin Colbert's replacement, promoting longtime executive Omar Khan to be the team's next general manager.
Khan signed a four-year deal to succeed Colbert, who is retiring at the end of the month following a hugely successful run that included two Super Bowl victories and an appearance in a third.
Khan, 45, has spent more than two decades with the Steelers, most recently as vice president of football and business administration.
British government approves Chelsea sale
Roman Abramovich's 19year ownership of Chelsea is ending after the British government approved the sale of the Premier League club by the sanctioned Russian oligarch to a consortium fronted by Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly.
The government had to be sure that Abramovich, who was sanctioned over his links to Russian President Vladimir Putin after the invasion of Ukraine, did not profit from the enforced sale of the club that his investment turned into one of the most successful in European football.
The reigning FIFA Club World Cup winners and 2021 European champions will be sold for 2.5 billion pounds ($3.1 billion) — the highest price ever for a sports team — with Premier League approval already granted on Tuesday.
Chelsea has been operating under a government license since Abramovich's assets were frozen in March and it expires on May 31.
Ewart Shadoff starts well at Match-Play
Jodi Ewart Shadoff routed defending champion Ally Ewing 6 and 5 at Shadow Creek in the first round of group play in the Bank of Hope LPGA MatchPlay in Las Vegas.
In the other Group 15 match, Jasmine Suwannapura beat So Yeon Ryu 5 and 3. The winners of the 16 four-player groups will advance to single elimination at the conclusion of round-robin play Friday.
Stanford women win golf national title
Rose Zhang of irvine wrapped up her match with a two-putt par on the 17th hole after Sofie Kibsgaard Nielson received a penalty and Stanford beat Oregon 3-2 for its second national championship.
The Ducks lost the first two matches, but rallied to win the next two, leaving it up to Zhang and Kibsgaard Nielson at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
• Claremont-MuddScripps upset No. 1 seed Chicago, 5-1, to win the NCAA Division III tennis national championship at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.
The national championship is CMS' second in four years, having also won in 2018 and finishing runnerup in 2019, before the last two seasons were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before dominating Chicago, CMS blanked previously undefeated Wesleyan in the semifinals.