Colin Kaepernick Files Grievance Vs. NFL Owners For Collusion

Colin Kaepernick is taking action against the NFL for prohibiting him from playing.

Colin Kaepernick Grievance News

Over the weekend, the free-agent quarterback filed a grievance against the league for collusion under the latest collective bargaining agreement.

Kaepernick — who will be 30 next month — is not going through the NFL Players’ Association, but instead has hired attorney Mark Geragos, who has represented several notable clients including Michael Jackson, former NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield and musician Chris Brown.

The filing requests an arbitration hearing on the issue, and alleges NFL team owners “have colluded to deprive Mr. Kaepernick of employment rights in retaliation for Mr. Kaepernick’s leadership and advocacy for equality and social justice and his bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States.”

Kaepernick also claims that some general managers and other league executives were directly forbidden by team owners to even work him out.

“If the NFL (as well as all professional sports teams) is to remain a meritocracy, then principled and peaceful protest — which the owners themselves made great theater imitating weeks ago — should not be punished and athletes should not be denied employment based on partisan political provocation by the Executive Branch of our government,” Geragos said in a statement. “Such a precedent threatens all patriotic Americans and harkens back to our darkest days as a nation. Protecting all athletes from such collusive conduct is what compelled Mr. Kaepernick to file his grievance.

“Colin Kaepernick’s goal has always been, and remains, to simply be treated fairly by the league he performed at the highest level for and to return to the football playing field,” the statement continued.

In a statement later Sunday, the NFLPA said it would offer Kaepernick support.

Sports Illustrated’s Michael McCann explained in an article on Sunday that Kaepernick would obviously need evidence of collusion in the form of an email, text message, video, audio recording, hand-written note or sworn testimony from a witness. McCann also emphasized that even if the quarterback proved that NFL team owners were racially insensitive, or that they were collaborating in some way with President Donald Trump — who lambasted players protesting the national anthem by kneeling at a rally last month — this would be insufficient to demonstrate collusion.

Earlier this month, Kaepernick spoke with CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora for an off-camera interview and reportedly said he’d go anywhere to work out for an NFL team and was fine if that workout was kept private.

BUFFALO, NY – OCTOBER 16: Colin Kaepernick #7 of the San Francisco 49ers looks to throw against the Buffalo Bills during the first half at New Era Field on October 16, 2016 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)