Colin Kaepernick lost the support of one of his most high-profile backers after the former NFL quarterback moved his workout to where NFL teams could watch him.
Rapper Jay-Z is “disappointed with Colin’s actions and believes he turned a legitimate workout into a publicity stunt,” a source told Sports Illustrated.
Kaepernick, who has been blacklisted from the league since kneeling during the national anthem, decided to move the location of the workout from the Atlanta Falcons practice facility to a high school football field.
The decision was made to accommodate the shooting of a Nike commercial.
[Opinion: Colin Kaepernick’s NFL workout session changes nothing]
“From the outset, Mr. Kaepernick requested a legitimate process and from the outset the NFL league office has not provided one,” the quarterback’s agent said. “Most recently, the NFL has demanded that as a precondition to the workout, Mr. Kaepernick sign an unusual liability waiver that addresses employment-related issues and rejected the standard liability waiver from physical injury proposed by Mr. Kaepernick’s representatives.”
Since Kaepernick left the league, Jay-Z has been one of his most ardent supporters, but their relationship was called into question after Jay-Z announced a partnership with the NFL to fight social injustice in the United States. Kaepernick was locked in a legal battle with the league at the time over what he alleged to be a conspiracy among team owners to keep him out of the NFL after he began kneeling. He later agreed to a settlement.
