The same league that allowed Michael Vick to return to play after going to prison for dogfighting, and that allowed Deshaun Watson to sign a $230 million contract following allegations of sexual misconduct by more than 20 women (Watson has maintained his innocence), was keeping Kaepernick out. “There’s no definitive moment that I would point to,” Kaepernick says of when he realized what was happening. Go to a Super Bowl, go to an NFC Championship, set records and no team would hire me, not even to coach?” Kaepernick says. In August 2017, the Miami Dolphins, whose owner Stephen Ross previously launched a nonprofit to fight systemic racism, signed quarterback Jay Cutler after an injury to starter Ryan Tannehill, even though Cutler had already retired. Meanwhile, NFL team executives used the media to try to pour water on the idea that Kaepernick had been excluded. Some coaches and general managers reached out, Kaepernick says, and explicitly told him, “Yes, we want to bring you in, but they’re closing in on us.” One of those coaches, Kaepernick writes in his book, was John Harbaugh, the then-head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Kaepernick spoke at length with Harbaugh during the summer of 2017. Harbaugh’s brother, Jim, was Kaepernick’s coach during the 49ers’ run to the Super Bowl. Kaepernick writes that Harbaugh was “pushing” to hire him, but was “shut down from the top.” In October 2017, Kaepernick filed a complaint against the NFL under the terms of the league and players’ collective bargaining agreement, alleging that the owners colluded not to hire him because of his protest. “Everyone thinks he was excluded,” says a former player who was in the league during 2016. “The players knew this would happen. That was a strong belief throughout the league.” Goodell rejected the notion of organized collusion to keep Kaepernick out of the NFL. “Those are decisions that each individual owner has to make and their clubs, coaches and general managers,” Goodell told NBC in 2020. “And I’ve talked to a lot of our clubs about it and encouraged them. I would love to see him play again.” The details of this day are now infamous, as Kaepernick ultimately canceled NFL training on the morning of due to a lengthy waiver he refused to sign (a waiver that Kaepernick believed would waive his employment rights and potential future claims) and instead managed to arrange his own training. The breakup of the training generated another round of skepticism, with many claiming that Kaepernick was either pulling a media stunt or not serious about wanting to play again. While Kaepernick was out of the league, the NFL attempted to lower the temperature of its protest, fighting the fallout from a particularly divisive election and a drop in ratings that some attributed to player protests. The league partnered in 2017 with the Players Coalition, a group founded to address systemic racism, and has since committed more than half a billion dollars to various social justice causes. Kaepernick was not part of the group. Kaepernick was banned from communications with the group by co-founder Malcolm Jenkins, which Jenkins denied). even taking into account what he got from the NFL in the deal. But when his career was dismissed, TV pundits continued to make personal attacks, and 986 people were killed by police in 2017, Kaepernick remained largely silent. He says that was intentional. “No one individual should speak for everyone in the entire country. I don’t think that’s a responsible way to approach things,” Kaepernick says. “It’s also being able to allow other people to be in leadership positions, because that’s what movements really are. It’s not one person who simply drives things.” Months after his training mistake, events unrelated to Kaepernick raised the volume of his protest once again. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, 46, was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minnesota. Video showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, killing him. Chauvin was convicted of multiple counts of murder in 2021. Nearly four years after Kaepernick took a knee in response to police brutality, protests erupted around the world in the wake of Floyd’s murder. Kaepernick says seeing protests around the world gave him hope at the time, especially as in some cases people risked their own well-being to be heard amid the pandemic. Nike included Kaepernick in its 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign in 2018. Supporters gathered outside the NFL headquarters in the. New York City after Kaepernick filed a complaint against the league alleging that owners were colluding to hire him because of his protest. Getty Images Archive “There was a significant portion of the population that was previously disconnected from these realities,” Kaepernick says “It was like, oh, I actually have to sit with this now and I have to deal with this. And do I agree with this? And what is my role in this? Am I complicit?” Corporations were also quick to meet the moment, including the NFL. In June 2020, several NFL players coordinated social media posts calling on the league to condemn racism and “admit the mistake of silencing our players from peacefully protesting.” The next day, Goodell responded in a video message. “We, the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black people,” Goodell said. in the video, echoing the words that the players demanded of him. “We, the National Football League, admit that we were wrong for not listening to the NFL players sooner and encourage everyone to speak out and protest peacefully. We, the National Football League, believe that black lives matter.” Kaepernick was not impressed. “Their response through that video was solely due to pressure from the players, not because it was altruistic,” Kaepernick says. The idea that the league should have listened to the protesting players “is so ridiculous in my opinion and so false,” Kaepernick says. “We had been trying to address the problem the NFL created by blackballing me for years. “To come out and say we should have heard that, while I’m still actively trying to play in the NFL, is very performative.”
