NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s collusion complaint is headed to a hearing.
An arbitrator denied the league’s request to throw out the complaint alleging executives worked together to prevent the free agent from signing with another team at the height of the controversy over protests during the national anthem.
Kaepernick filed the grievance in October under the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, asserting the NFL and its owners “colluded to deprive” him of “employment rights in retaliation for” his “leadership and advocacy for equality and social justice and his bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States.”
Mark Geragos, Kaepernick’s attorney, Thursday shared the decision by arbitrator Stephen B. Burbank to not dismiss Kaepernick’s case via social media without comment.
[Related: Colin Kaepernick’s attorney predicts ‘smoking gun’ in NFL collusion case]
Breaking news @Kaepernick7 pic.twitter.com/mAYhkRKwB9
— Mark Geragos (@markgeragos) August 30, 2018
Kaepernick became a household name during the 2016-17 regular season when he began kneeling or sitting down for the national anthem before games while he was still playing for the San Francisco 49ers. He received both backlash and admiration for starting the movement, which he maintains was over police brutality against African-Americans and worsening race relations in the nation.
But Kaepernick’s very public advocacy did not come without a personal cost. He has struggled to find a home with another franchise following his move in 2017 to opt out of the contract he had with the 49ers.
“If the NFL (as well as all professional sports leagues) is to remain a meritocracy, then principled and peaceful political protest — which the owners themselves made greater 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,” Mark Geragos, another Kaepernick attorney, said in a statement when the complaint was first filed. “Such a precedent threatens all patriotic Americans and harkens back to our darkest days as a nation.”
Kaepernick, and other players who have demonstrated during the “Star-Spangled Banner,” have drawn ire from President Trump, who argues it is a slight against the American flag and military personnel who fought or continue to fight under it. Trump’s fiery rhetoric on the matter sparked further protests from professional athletes, many of whom rejected invitations to visit the White House after championship wins.
