Colin Kaepernicks long struggle the secr

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Colin Kaepernicks long struggle the secr

The last time I spoke to , casually chatting for hours at a hip downtown New York hotel on a warm fall evening, he was on the cusp of filing a historic collusion case against the . He was engaging and focused. He was pa sionate yet measured. He was in tremendous shape.We spoke about football and life and the unusual struggle he was facing to merely get a chance to work out for an . He and his girlfriend, Ne sa Diab, Ka'imi Fairbairn Jersey showed me photos and videos of Kaepernick's workouts and his visits to countle s schools and camps, where children embraced him and gravitated to him in a real and genuine way. They did it in the manner in which I might show an acquaintance photos of my own kids, beaming with a parent's pride. They asked me, in hindsight, probably as many questions as I asked them.I didn't know it at the time, but they were already fortified for what 2018 might bring two weeks after Donald Trump had called protesting NFL players sons of bitches with it becoming increasingly clear that no team was going to sign him during the 2017 season. Kaepernick had met with officials that summer, but they opted not to work him out. owner Steve BIsciotti had, now infamously, urged Ravens fans to "pray" for the team as it mulled po sibly signing the QB during training camp. Teams ignored Kaepernick as their quarterbacks got hurt, with the final blow, as it turns out, coming just days before we met in that hotel lobby, when the rebuffed inquiries from Kaepernick's agents while bringing in the likes of , , T.J. Yates and , with starter hurt again. Kaepernick had already decided on a legal team with which to proceed I was unaware in that moment and he inquired how I thought the owners and coaches and general managers of the NFL might react if they pursued legal action. We discu sed the litany of unproven or unaccomplished journeymen backup quarterbacks who continued to get chances to sign contracts. We talked about the league office and the commi sioner and the league's vast legal resources, and what degree of support he might expect from the NFLPA moving forward. I told him that I would be shocked if any team Jaelen Strong Jersey signed him that season, and couldn't guarantee that anyone ever would, but that I believed truth and conviction were on his side. Kaepernick beamed with positivity despite the somewhat dire career prospects, and I suggested that if I were him I would be exploring legal avenues to compel teams to explain the sudden and profound lack of interest in his services.I jumped in a cab that October Saturday night, far closer to midnight than I anticipated, with the full realization that Kaepernick had the confidence, mindset and requisite support from his inner circle to challenge the league at the appropriate time. It would be a modern-day David vs. Goliath one man and a few lawyers vs. a corporation/institution with over $15B a year in gro s revenue and I told my producers and colleagues at "The NFL Today" early the next morning that Kaepernick was going to be prepared to take his case to levels previously unforeseen. This was not going away and might prove to be truly historic. Do not underestimate Colin Kaepernick, I told them.I figured a legal battle would begin by the end of the 2017 season; I was quite wrong. Le s than a week later, Kaepernick's lawyers, led by Mark Geragos, formally filed their collusion case against the NFL. They were already ready. They were already there. The fight was, silently, already on. I've thought back on that night quite often in the last week, as I have considered what to make of the landmark settlement between Kaepernick and the NFL that was announced last Friday. I've recalled what a remarkable year 2018 turned out to be for Kaepernick on so many levels, all while the NFL again found ways to pretend he was something other than simply an unrestricted free agent quarterback. We might never see something quite like this again. Hopefully, never again.The movement that he birthed when he decided to take a knee during "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the 2016 season had become increasingly Tyrod Taylor Jersey mainstream, and owners pledged $90 million toward social justice measures. owner Robert Kraft, a prominent Trump supporter in 2016, now worked to procure justice for incarcerated rapper Meek Mill, Papa John's founder was ousted for racism, singers and rappers scoffed at performing at halftime of the out of respect for Kaepernick and Nike could not keep its Kaepernick apparel on the shelves. There was an historic overhaul of the political party in power at the 2018 mid-term elections, with gra sroots political movements taking hold. The Kaepernick Effect is real.I've been asked over and over about the settlement, and who won, and who lost and what it means. With details still so Houston Texans Men Jersey scarce and perhaps, always so, given the high stakes and confidentiality agreements and so few individuals truly in the know, I'd caution against anyone throwing figures at a wall and gue sing at what the NFL paid to try to put this uncomfortable, unfortunate and easily-avoidable era of football labor history to bed. I'd steer clear of anyone trying to couch it in terms of a financial victory or defeat. So I won't be going there.But I do believe there are still some conclusions that can be drawn by the way in which this case finally came to a resolution. As the days have gone by, some thoughts have resonated. And, sadly, I can't quite call anyone a winner in the way in which we usually a sociate the word with sports.Kaepernick, undoubtedly, got the league's attention. He forced its ma sive power structure to deal with him and, for the first time that I can remember, put the commi sioner and owners and GMs on the defensive. They were the ones having to sit for hours at depositions and discovery se sions. They had to turn over electronic communications and explain their actions or inaction when it came to not signing this player in the way (Deflategate) or Sean Payton (Bountygate) or Bill Belichick (Spygate) or ( hazing/bullying case) or Zeke Elliott (domestic violence case) had to in high-profile cases the last two decades.The NFL couldn't just get system arbitrator Stephen Burbank, a Penn law profe sor, to throw out the Ross Blacklock Jersey merits of Kaepernick's contentions. It had to spend countle s dollars over roughly 16 months to methodically comply with brief after brief and request after request and go through this grievance proce s. Whether the payout to Kaepernick was measured in seven figures or eight figures, the full costs a sociated with it for the NFL financially and from a PR nightmare standpoint goes far beyond that. Ultimately, the NFL had to reckon with Kaepernick, and this case did not go away until the moment the quarterback was ready for it to do so. It began on his terms. It ended on his terms.There is, certainly, a level of vindication in this for him. His cause was always worth fighting for, and Burbank and the NFL cannot dispute that. No one c
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