Colin Kaepernick was the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers and led that team to the Super Bowl in 2012. However, Kaepernick has been struggling to find a job on any NFL Roster, and he believes that it is because of the stance that he recently took against police brutality and racism in America. I believe that Kaepernick is undoubtedly a very talented player, and he is definitely better than many back up quarterbacks in NFL. Because Colin feels this way as well, he has filed a grievance against the NFL, claiming that the owners of all thirty-two NFL teams have colluded against him for protesting.
Collusion has a very high standard and very hard to prove. The NFL’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is the mechanism that governs these types of disputes. The agreement states that when a player has not been signed, that fact cannot be the only evidence they proffer in order to show that all of the NFL teams are colluding against that player. CNN contributor and attorney, Mark Geragos filed the grievance for Kaepernick. Attorney Geragos only offered the evidence that he has yet to be signed by any NFL team. The grievance asserted, “The mere suspicion of collusion against Mr. Kaepernick has risen to the level of concrete and actual collusion. It is no longer a statistical anomaly but instead a statistical impossibility that Mr. Kaepernick has not been employed or permitted to try out for any NFL team since the initiation of his free agency period.”
Although Mr. Geragos is correct that it is a little shocking that a player of that level of talent has not been signed yet, it seems a little hard to believe that every owner of teams in the NFL has actually colluded against signing him. Many teams worked out Kaepernick over the summer, but have chosen to sign other quarterbacks instead. Some of these teams include the Seattle Seahawks and the Baltimore Ravens.
One interesting part of the grievance that he filed with the courts is that if Kaepernick wins this claim, it does not grant him a job as an NFL quarterback. The NFL teams will not be forced to sign Kaepernick. Instead, he will only be compensated in damages. Many believe that if Colin Kaepernick is signed in the near future, this grievance against the NFL may have solidified the near ending of his football career.
Sources:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/15/news/colin-kaepernick-nfl/index.html
