Goodell: Kaepernick is on his own

MINNEAPOLIS — Roger Goodell apparently cares more about what constitutes a catch than whether Colin Kaepernick is employed in the NFL.

The NFL commissioner reiterated his stance that it’s not the league’s place to get involved in whether Colin Kaepernick gets a chance with another team, and says that a committee examining protests during the national anthem — a movement Kaepernick started while with the 49ers in 2016 — is on the proper path.

“Clubs have to make their own decisions as far as who’s on their roster,” Goodell said at his annual Super Bowl news conference.

Kaepernick wasn’t signed for the 2017 season following his release in San Francisco. He has filed a collusion case against the NFL, alleging that the league’s owners have conspired to keep him unemployed.

The comments from Goodell

came a day after Philadelphia receiver Torrey Smith said Kaepernick not getting a chance with another team “kind of falls in the category of an injustice in itself.”

As it relates to roster decisions, Goodell said the NFL won’t “get involved in that in any way.”

The committee examining the protests is a recently created committee on social justice comprised of owners and players.

In other matters:

Goodell says the NFL’s controversial catch rule is the issue he personally sees as the most obvious to address.

Goodell recently spent three hours with former players, including Pro Football Hall of Famers, going over 150 plays. He said there were many good ideas offered, but as for the specifics of what should be a catch, there was little consensus.

So the competition committee will dive into not only this rule, but perhaps refining the rulebook on this issue from scratch.

“I would like to start back, instead of adding to the rule, subtracting the rule,” Goodell said. “Start over again and look at the rule fundamentally from the start.” He noted that there were more replay interruptions in 2017, and the challenge is, “How do we use replay to ensure correcting obvious mistakes but making sure it doesn’t interrupt the flow of the game?”

Goodell revealed that the league has hired an independent investigator to look into claims of sexual and racial misconduct in the workplace against Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson. Former U.S. attorney Mary Jo White will lead the investigation.

Richardson stepped away from day-to-day operations after allegations surfaced and is seeking to sell the team.