- Kaepernick says NFL offered him a role to lead social justice initiatives, which he rejected as collusion.
- Kaepernick argues Jay-Z’s NFL partnership helped the league move past the police brutality protest.
- Kaepernick believes the NFL was searching for a prominent Black figure to end the controversy permanently.
Colin Kaepernick is reopening one of the most infamous chapters in the NFL’s recent history, and this time, Jay-Z is catching what some would call some very deserved heat.
In a new interview on the MeidasTouch Podcast to promote his new book The Perilous Fight, Kaepernick revisited the fallout from his decision to kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice. According to Kaepernick, NFL owners were not simply looking for a way to address the controversy. They were looking for a prominent Black person who could help make the national controversy disappear permanently.
Kaepernick pointed to a 2017 meeting between NFL owners and players, saying Patriots owner Robert Kraft referred to the protests as “the elephant in the room.” He says Bills owner Terry Pegula followed that conversation by saying, “We need a Black face to help us end this.” And let Kaepernick tell it, the league tried to make him that face first. He says the NFL offered him a major role leading the league’s social justice initiatives, an offer he rejected because he believed the league was conspiring and colluding against him. Kap says the NFL also approached the Players Coalition before eventually finding another prominent Black figure willing to work within its system.
In 2019, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation entered into a partnership with the NFL involving entertainment and the league’s Inspire Change social justice initiative. Jay-Z said at the time that society was “past kneeling” and needed to focus on “actionable items.” The partnership immediately drew intense criticism, particularly because Jay-Z had previously supported Kaepernick and had worn his jersey during a 2017 “Saturday Night Live” appearance and now seemed to be selling out the moment and the movement.
Kaepernick now argues that Jay-Z effectively filled the role NFL ownership had been searching for, helping redirect the conversation away from the protest itself and toward a more benign and toothless version of social justice.
That distinction is the whole damn ballgame.
Kaepernick also revealed that cable news talking head Van Jones tried to set him up to be used by the Trump administration.
Via Mediaite
“What was relayed to me was the outreach came from Van Jones for this,” Kaepernick explained. “And you know, they wanted to have us come in — I don’t know the details around it because, candidly, as soon it came up as ‘Hey, here is the opportunity,’ it was immediately rejected.”
The effectively banned quarterback says that the offer came after Trump had publicly blasted him for kneeling.
“[It was] Him trying to garner support and put up a facade that he’s working for Black people or trying to be in the benefit of Black people — history shows otherwise,” Kaepernick said.
Nearly a decade later, Kaepernick clearly still believes that the NFL and its owners are problematic and he is free to say so despite Jay Z’s claims that he had been silenced by one of the league’s NDAs. If you’re one of the ones who says “Colin Kaepernick doesn’t speak”, here he is. Don’t be mad at what he’s saying now.
