The NFL season is a few days away from beginning, yet again, without Colin Kaepernick on a professional roster. The abrupt retirement of Andrew Luck has created a quarterback vacuum in Indianapolis that has yet to include his name while more and more quarterbacks you thought were retired get an opportunity to back up Jacoby Brissett.
Kaepernick’s collusion case against the NFL has been well-documented and is barely a sports story at this point because he continues not to play football as a direct result of his nonviolent protest against police brutality of people of color that started during the 2016 NFL preseason. He’s been out of a job since then, but there has been a significant amount of attention dedicated to his absence, both in the sports and music worlds.
It’s what made Jay-Z’s deal with the NFL so strange (though not surprising) and what’s made it draw so much criticism from other musicians and pro athletes alike. But despite Jay-Z’s own defense of the deal, Kaepernick has yet to officially comment on the decision of a one-time Kaepernick backer and billionaire to join forces with the organization that’s refusing Kaep work. But on Friday, the same days as Jay-Z’s first press release about his partnership, Kaepernick tweeted a pointed passage from a book that seems to criticize the rapper.
https://twitter.com/Kaepernick7/status/1167548687842762754
The tweet made no direct mention of Jay-Z or his NFL partnership, but it was a pointed critique of people of color partnering with a ruling entity in order to gain benefits for themselves rather than the community as a whole. Jay-Z has said that protesting can’t make the impact that his deal with the NFL can, but in his time away from football Kaepernick has done plenty to fight injustice on his own terms. And it certainly seems like he’s happy with the progress that’s been made and his approach of the situation.
The comments on Kaepernick’s post make it clear that most believe the message was sent with HOVA in mind. And while it doesn’t solve much of anything, at the very least it’s clear that Kaepernick is steadfast in his goals despite a prominent ally joining forces with the NFL.
