One of the many twists on the winding road to Colin Kaepernick’s unusual tryout Saturday was a series of conversations between two unlikely bedfellows.
Since they formed a business alliance this summer, Jay-Z, the music star and impresario, and Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, have spoken frequently about several issues, including the fate of Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who has not played in nearly three years, after kneeling during the national anthem in the 2016 season.
Kneeling made Kaepernick, 32, a polarizing force across the country. He began doing it to protest police violence against African-Americans, then became a free agent in 2017 and was unable to find a new club. After that, he filed a grievance accusing the league’s 32 owners of conspiring to keep him off the field because of his political views.
The league reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Kaepernick in February, a move that gave teams in search of a quarterback — and there are many with needs at that position — a green light to give Kaepernick a tryout. To date, no one has, and Kaepernick has largely been out of the spotlight this season, a relief to many team owners who wanted to move beyond the debates he had kindled.
Still, Goodell and Jay-Z both wanted Kaepernick to at least get a chance to try out for a team, if only for their own benefit, according to several people familiar with their conversations who were not permitted to speak publicly for the two men. Neither of them could give Kaepernick a job, but the status quo was hurting both of them.
Goodell had a business quandary to address: A significant portion of NFL followers, particularly African-Americans and younger fans, support Kaepernick and blame the league for his inability to find a new team. The NFL would prefer that those fans, who represent the sport’s future, not continue to view Kaepernick as a victim, a talented player blackballed for a peaceful protest. Holding a tryout might at least start to chip away at that perception.
“The question is: What will the narrative be in 10 or 20 years, that Colin knelt and became a martyr?” said one of the people familiar with the discussions. “The NFL has a chance to change that narrative.”
Several clubs had expressed interest in speaking with Kaepernick but did not want to take the first step because of a potential blowback from fans who oppose players’ kneeling during the anthem. Goodell provided those teams cover by inviting all 32 clubs to watch Kaepernick work out at the Atlanta Falcons’ training facility this weekend.
Jay-Z had other concerns. The rap star was one of Kaepernick’s most prominent supporters after he started kneeling and inspired other athletes to take similar stances. When Jay-Z performed on “Saturday Night Live” in 2017, he wore a customized version of Kaepernick’s 49ers jersey. He also rebuffed overtures to perform at the Super Bowl in February.
Then, to nearly everyone’s surprise, Jay-Z teamed up with the NFL in August to consult on entertainment ventures, including the Super Bowl halftime show, and to contribute to the league’s social activism campaigns. At a news conference with Goodell a day after their partnership was announced, Jay-Z was peppered with questions about what appeared to be an about-face. He said the focus should be on finding solutions, not protests.
“I think we have moved past kneeling,” Jay-Z said when asked a hypothetical question about whether he would kneel during the anthem if he were an athlete. “I think it’s time to go into actionable items.”
That ignited criticism toward Jay-Z from the African-American community, and from Kaepernick’s allies in the NFL, including his former teammate Eric Reid, who has also knelt through the anthem.
By helping Kaepernick get a tryout with the NFL, Jay-Z is hoping to help resolve the contentious issues surrounding the quarterback’s absence from the league, according to a person with knowledge of the entertainer’s thinking.
Still, the level of distrust between the NFL and Kaepernick is such that critics of the league wonder whether the tryout is a face-saving measure, not a genuine attempt to land him a job. They point to the fact that the tryout was hastily arranged and that Kaepernick was given two hours to reply to the invitation Tuesday.
Ahead of the tryout Kaepernick has not been asked whether he plans to continue kneeling during the anthem if he returns to the NFL, according to two people familiar with the planning of the event.
For several months, Goodell has been speaking to many people inside and outside the NFL about whether and how to get Kaepernick a tryout. Harry Edwards, the longtime civil rights activist and a confidant to NFL players, said he had been talking to Goodell for two years about setting up a workout for Kaepernick.
Edwards said the tryout would help show whether Kaepernick even wants to play football.
Teams should “come in and see what kind of condition he’s in, whether or not he is interviewing fine, if he’s truly interested in playing and so forth and so on, because those questions are out there,” said Edwards, an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Some team owners are less than enthusiastic about seeing Kaepernick connected to the league again. When the NFL reached the deal to end Kaepernick’s grievance in February, more than a few owners felt that the league could finally move on from the controversy.
“There is one less issue for Roger to deal with,” one owner said at the time. “It takes the energy out of the anthem issue.”
Now some owners are unhappy that the NFL has gone out of its way to help a player who accused them of collusion, cost them millions of dollars in legal fees, and ignited a controversy that media executives say drove down ratings. But during a season when numerous big-name quarterbacks have been sidelined with injuries, Kaepernick, even three years removed from football, is attracting interest.
More than a dozen teams, even those with plenty of quarterbacks on their roster, plan to send representatives to the tryout at the Falcons’ training facility 90 minutes northeast of Atlanta.
The Kansas City Chiefs, who already have four quarterbacks on their roster, will be one of the teams attending the workout. Clark Hunt, the Chiefs owner, said there was no harm in the team doing its due diligence. Now it will be up to Kaepernick, once one of the sport’s brightest young stars, to convince a team that he is still NFL-ready.
“This workout will probably go part of the way toward answering that question,” Hunt said.
