Table of Contents
- Key Highlights:
- Introduction
- From Franchise Quarterback to Protest Symbol: The Early Arc
- The Aftermath: Free Agency, a Grievance, and a Confidential Settlement
- The 2022 Raiders Workout: A Near Return That Never Materialized
- What Does “Blackballing” Mean in This Context?
- The Broader Player Protest Movement and Institutional Responses
- Kaepernick’s Activism: Know Your Rights Camp, Philanthropy, and Influence
- The Perilous Fight: Memoir as Narrative Control
- Performance, Age, and the Practical Obstacles to a Return
- Reputation, Memory, and the Measure of a Legacy
- The Institutional Landscape: How Leagues, Teams, and Sponsors Respond to Athlete Activism
- What Comes Next: Coaching, Media, Philanthropy, and the Limits of a Return
- Broader Lessons: Sports, Protest, and the Public Square
- Assessing Claims and Counterclaims
- The Long View: How History Might Remember This Moment
- FAQ
Key Highlights:
- Colin Kaepernick says a 2022 workout with the Las Vegas Raiders was the closest he came to returning to the NFL and argues he has been intentionally blackballed by the league.
- Beyond the protests that defined the final stage of his playing career, Kaepernick has built a sustained activism portfolio — from the Know Your Rights Camp to high-profile partnerships — and now aims to shape how history remembers him through a forthcoming memoir, The Perilous Fight.
Introduction
A decade after he first knelt during the national anthem, Colin Kaepernick remains a figure who divides opinion and commands attention. His single act of protest in 2016 grew into the most visible player-led political movement in modern NFL history, and it reshaped conversations about protest, race, and power in American sports. Yet while the kneel is often how the public recalls him, the arc of Kaepernick’s story is longer and more layered: a Super Bowl quarterback who became a dissenter, a litigant who challenged league practices, and an activist whose influence stretches into education and philanthropy.
A recent NBC News interview and Kaepernick’s disclosure that a 2022 Raiders workout was the closest he came to an NFL return have reignited debate. He asserts the league has blackballed him and remains focused on building a legacy beyond the field. This article traces the timeline of events, analyzes the arguments around blackballing and accountability, assesses how Kaepernick’s activism transformed his public standing, and considers what his memoir and future work mean for his reputation and for professional football.
From Franchise Quarterback to Protest Symbol: The Early Arc
Kaepernick arrived in the NFL as a prototype of the modern dual-threat quarterback. He rose through the San Francisco 49ers system, took over as starter in 2012, and led the team to Super Bowl XLVII. His physical tools and mobility redefined how some teams thought about QB play, and his rapid ascent made him a fixture on sports pages.
The shift in public focus came in 2016. During preseason and early regular-season games that year, Kaepernick began protesting racial injustice and police violence by taking a knee during the national anthem. His initial action—sitting during the anthem—evolved after a conversation with a military veteran who suggested kneeling as a more respectful posture. What started as a player-led, localized expression of protest became national news and then a political flashpoint.
Responses were immediate and intense. Teammates joined the protest in varying numbers, owners and league officials were drawn into the controversy, and national politicians weighed in. The topic moved far beyond the boundaries of the 49ers locker room and into congressional hearings, cable-news battlegrounds, and presidential rhetoric. For many observers, Kaepernick’s protest represented a principled stand on systemic problems; for others, it symbolized disrespect toward national symbols and service members. That polarization is central to understanding why Kaepernick’s career did not continue in the traditional arc for quarterbacks of his talent.
The Aftermath: Free Agency, a Grievance, and a Confidential Settlement
Kaepernick played his last NFL snap in the 2016 season. When he entered free agency in 2017, teams did not sign him despite periodic reports of interest. That silence prompted questions: did NFL teams evaluate his playing ability and conclude he had declined? Or did teams avoid him because of the controversy and its potential consequences, a claim of collusion?
Kaepernick pursued a formal grievance in 2017, alleging that NFL teams had colluded to keep him out of the league. The claim argued that team owners and executives had acted in concert to deny him employment because of his protest. The matter did not see a final public adjudication: in 2019, Kaepernick and the NFL reached a confidential settlement. The settlement resolved the grievance but did not establish a public finding on whether collusion had occurred. Consequently, the legal question remains unresolved for many observers, and the argument that he was blackballed is shaped as much by circumstantial indicators and public remarks as by legal findings.
Eric Reid, the other player most associated with the protests early on, joined Kaepernick in contesting league conduct. Reid continued his NFL career for several seasons after Kaepernick’s last game, a reminder that outcomes for players who protested varied widely and that the league’s response was not monolithic.
The 2022 Raiders Workout: A Near Return That Never Materialized
The Las Vegas Raiders invited Kaepernick to a private workout in 2022, six years after his last NFL game. Reports indicate the workout was kept intentionally low-profile; the team did not publicize it and the session did not leak in a way that disclosed Kaepernick’s physical condition or performance. When asked about his career recently, Kaepernick told NBC News that that workout represented the closest he came to another NFL opportunity.
At the time, Josh McDaniels was the Raiders’ head coach and Derek Carr was firmly the starter. The Raiders’ interest would have been for depth or a backup role, not a starter’s job. The franchise has long cultivated an outsider brand and historic willingness to court controversy. That reputation makes the Raiders a logical candidate to bring in a controversial figure. Yet even in a franchise less constrained by public backlash, signing Kaepernick presented risks the organization may have deemed too high.
Public accounts of the workout vary. Some analysts and former players, like Warren Sapp, voiced skepticism afterward about how well Kaepernick looked in the session. The team did not offer an official evaluation, leaving questions about whether the decision not to sign him was due to age, athletic decline, scheme fit, perception of risk, or league-wide pressures.
Kaepernick has framed the failure to be signed after that workout as further evidence of systemic exclusion. He told NBC News he would not support an organization that, in his assessment, “is actively blackballing me” and that has “targeted my brothers who have been protesting as part of this as well.” His posture today is less about a return to quarterbacking than about how he is treated by institutions and how those institutions respond to protest.
What Does “Blackballing” Mean in This Context?
“Blackballing” evokes organized, sustained efforts to exclude someone from a profession. The charge carries weight: if true, it would mean owners and decision-makers acted not merely on performance metrics but on a desire to silence dissent or avoid association.
Proving collusion, in legal terms, requires showing coordinated conduct among teams or with the league office that interfered with a player’s employment. The confidential settlement with the NFL in 2019 left the underlying facts undisclosed. Legally, Kaepernick’s grievance did not result publicly in an adjudicated finding. Practically, however, many signs point toward significant non-performance-based factors influencing his opportunities.
Consider the incentives at play for NFL franchises. Signing Kaepernick would invite extraordinary media attention, polarized fan reactions, and potential sponsor scrutiny. Team owners balance these concerns against roster needs and the potential upside of a player’s contribution. Even teams with reputations for provocation might assess the short-term operational impact—locker-room chemistry, fan base reaction, local political pressure—and conclude the cost outweighed benefits.
The era also saw owner responses that complicated potential signings. At times league officials and team owners publicly criticized kneeling-led protests; at other moments the league attempted to navigate a middle ground by proposing anthem policies that would require standing, then withdraw or modify those rules when backlash intensified. That inconsistent approach likely shaped front-office thinking about whether to risk adding a polarizing figure.
Beyond explicit coordination, an informal cultural consensus can achieve the same practical effect as collusion. If general managers, head coaches, and owners share a tacit understanding that signing Kaepernick is not worth the trouble, the result is de facto exclusion. This form of exclusion may not meet the strict legal definition of collusion but it accomplishes a similar outcome: a talented player remains unsigned.
The Broader Player Protest Movement and Institutional Responses
Kaepernick’s protest inspired others. At its peak, dozens of players across the league took forms of protest during the anthem: kneeling, locking arms, or opting to remain in the locker room. The movement forced the NFL to reckon publicly with questions about race, policing, and free expression.
The league experimented with policies intended to standardize conduct around the anthem. In 2018, the NFL announced a policy that would require players to stand during the anthem or remain in the locker room. The policy drew backlash from players and civil-rights groups and was not implemented as originally announced; later, in the face of renewed scrutiny after the 2020 protests following George Floyd’s murder, the NFL shifted toward a different posture that acknowledged social-justice concerns and opened more channels for player voice.
Teams reacted differently. Some owners publicly criticized Kaepernick; others defended player expression. The President of the United States entered the conversation, urging teams to fire players who protested; his comments intensified the politicization. Sponsors and fans weighed in with boycotts or vocal support. The backlash and response formed a patchwork, with the practical effect that a player like Kaepernick was navigating a labor market suffused with political considerations not typically associated with on-field performance.
Real-world comparisons help explain how this plays out. Consider a company in the private sector that weighs hiring a controversial but qualified executive. Even if the board sees a net benefit, the risk of customer loss, brand damage, and activist investor pressure can deter action. In the NFL, the stakes include ticket sales, local government relationships (stadium approvals, public subsidies), and television ratings. Owners make decisions with that mosaic in mind.
Kaepernick’s Activism: Know Your Rights Camp, Philanthropy, and Influence
If the field denied him a return, Kaepernick doubled down on work off it. He founded the Know Your Rights Camp in 2016, a program that aims to educate youth about legal rights and empower marginalized communities. The camp and associated projects have distributed resources, partnered with community organizations, and trained young people in their constitutional rights and civic engagement.
Kaepernick has also supported legal defense funds, donated to mutual-aid initiatives, and funded community programs around education and health. High-visibility endorsements, such as the Nike ad campaign in 2018 that used the line “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything,” amplified his message and kept him in the cultural spotlight, even as he remained off the field. That advertisement split public opinion but was a tremendous example of how corporate partnerships can align with activist messaging to sustain public presence.
The arc of Kaepernick’s activism shows that athlete influence no longer has to be tethered to on-field appearances. Modern athletes with social platforms can sustain influence through media, philanthropy, and brand partnerships. Kaepernick has followed that trajectory: even absent from Sunday contests, he remains relevant in the national conversation.
The Perilous Fight: Memoir as Narrative Control
Kaepernick plans to release a memoir titled The Perilous Fight. Public figures use memoirs to shape historical understanding and to assert their perspective on events that have been otherwise mediated by press cycles and partisan spin. For Kaepernick, the memoir offers a forum to narrate his motivations, explain his actions, and present the details of events that have been filtered through editorial slants.
Memoirs serve multiple purposes. They are accountings of fact and feeling, arguments crafted for a readership, and strategic efforts to solidify legacy. In Kaepernick’s case, The Perilous Fight may address the workout with the Raiders, the grievance and settlement with the NFL, his decision-making in 2016, and the progression of his activism. His hope, as he stated in interviews, is that when history writes his story, people will judge it through a broader lens than the protests alone.
Books change reputations. Consider other athletes and public figures whose writings recast their narratives: candid, well-timed memoirs can lead to reassessments, reopen conversations about legacy, and shape future opportunities. Kaepernick’s memoir will enter a media environment primed to debate his motives and his impact. If the work is meticulous, emotionally grounded, and factually robust, it will deepen the public’s understanding of the stakes he perceived and the decisions he made.
Performance, Age, and the Practical Obstacles to a Return
Even for an athlete of Kaepernick’s caliber at his peak, returning after a multi-year absence is difficult. Quarterbacks depend on timing, live reps, and acclimation within an offense—elements that fray with inactivity. At 38, Kaepernick faces physical realities that matter as much as the political ones.
NFL teams evaluating him in 2022 would weigh medical exams, practice footage, and the fit with offensive schemes. Backup quarterbacks often serve as mentors, dress-practice leaders, and emergency options; teams scrutinize whether an older veteran can deliver value in those roles. The uncertainty of performance after such a long absence made some teams wary even before factoring in the political fallout.
Comparisons to other late-career returns illuminate the challenge. Players who miss seasons and return successfully often follow structured rehabs—offseason training programs, practice squad reps, or schemes tuned to their strengths. Kaepernick’s high-profile status made a low-key return path difficult; any signing would have been public and potentially disruptive to an organization’s season.
A hypothetical return scenario would have required alignment: a team with clear need at quarterback depth, a coaching staff willing to absorb the public attention, and an assessment that Kaepernick’s physical and mental readiness outweighed the risks. The Raiders’ workout suggested one franchise considered that equation; that they did not sign him shows the complexity of real-world roster decisions.
Reputation, Memory, and the Measure of a Legacy
Athlete legacies are compound objects. They include on-field accomplishments, off-field behavior, and the social context that surrounds both. Kaepernick’s Super Bowl appearance and his status as a starting quarterback form an empirical base. His protest and the reaction to it are interpretive overlays that will shape how history remembers him.
Public memory is malleable. Over time, controversy that dominated headlines can settle into more complex appraisals. Players whose pronouncements once scandalized fans can be seen later as prescient or principled as cultural sensibilities shift. Consider athletes whose stances on social issues — from Muhammad Ali’s draft refusal to Jackie Robinson’s activism — were contested in their eras but contributed to broader social change and altered their place in history.
Kaepernick’s aspiration for a positive legacy is pragmatic. He recognizes that people will ultimately make their own judgments. What he can control is the body of work he leaves: community programs, public testimony, legal actions, and now a memoir. These elements supply evidence for future historians and commentators to weigh.
Legacy also interacts with institutional memory. The NFL’s public posture on protests has shifted since 2016; owners and executives now often point to investments in social-justice initiatives and player programs. Whether institutional change accompanies those words is the proving ground. Kaepernick’s critics will argue that his actions were divisive; his supporters will point to the policy conversations and philanthropic outcomes his protest catalyzed.
The Institutional Landscape: How Leagues, Teams, and Sponsors Respond to Athlete Activism
The Kaepernick case offers a template for how sports institutions respond to activism. Leagues and teams face competing pressures: to uphold traditional symbols that many fans cherish, to protect sponsorship relationships, and to maintain the league’s cultural relevance among younger and more diverse audiences.
Sponsors, in particular, make decisions that reshape the calculus. When Nike ran its 2018 campaign featuring Kaepernick, it signaled that powerful brands might accept the reputational risk of aligning with activism. That endorsement validated Kaepernick’s influence but also deepened the polarization; while Nike’s stock and campaign eventually showed commercial success, other sponsors and local partners react differently based on market characteristics.
Teams now face clearer playbooks for handling dissent: they can suppress, tolerate, or embrace it, depending on internal leadership and market priorities. The Kaepernick episode revealed how inconsistent those playbooks were across franchises. Some teams encouraged player expression in private while publicly denouncing protest, and others allowed more visible demonstrations. The divergence of responses underscores the decentralized nature of professional sports governance: no single playbook dictates outcomes.
This decentralized governance helps explain why Kaepernick’s standing remained precarious. Even if one or two teams were willing to sign him, the band of potential suitors narrowed when owners and general managers were alert to the possible ripple effects in their markets.
What Comes Next: Coaching, Media, Philanthropy, and the Limits of a Return
A player’s transition from athlete to coach or executive follows a distinct path. Coaching often requires networking inside a league and a demonstrable commitment to the operational grind of practice plans, game preparation, and player development. Kaepernick’s past relationships in the league might have opened doors—his former head coach, Jim Harbaugh, became a prominent NFL coach after returning to the college ranks—and speculation about coaching roles surfaces from time to time. Yet coaching carries its own challenges: teams may conclude that a coaching role for Kaepernick would change team dynamics or distract from on-field goals.
Media roles and partnerships with production companies offer alternative paths. Kaepernick’s narrative status and public voice make him a candidate for documentary work, executive production on content that explores civil rights and sports, or even commentary roles that move beyond the play-by-play booth. These avenues let him convert cultural capital into platforms for storytelling while avoiding the intermittent scrutiny that comes with a roster spot.
Philanthropy remains a domain where Kaepernick can exercise durable influence. The Know Your Rights Camp and similar initiatives allow for sustained community engagement and measurable outcomes. For many athletes turned activists, the long game of philanthropy cements an impact that persists independent of the sports calendar.
The possibility of a playing comeback remains remote. Age, time away from the game, and lingering political considerations make it unlikely. Yet his memoir and ongoing activism provide ways to preserve influence and to shape the conversation about athlete protest for the next generation.
Broader Lessons: Sports, Protest, and the Public Square
The Kaepernick episode is a case study in how sports function as a public square. Athletic platforms magnify voices, and when athletes speak about political or social issues, their speech reverberates beyond the stadium. The NFL, as a major cultural institution, reflected the country’s larger struggles with race and free expression.
One lesson is that institutions are slow to adapt to new forms of athlete engagement. The league’s awkward policy proposals, episodic statements, and later investments in social-justice programs show how organizations adjust under pressure. Another lesson regards the costs to individuals who act at the intersection of sport and politics. Kaepernick accepted—and continues to accept—costs for his stance. The question of whether the costs justified the aim is subjective; the measurable outcome is that his protest triggered a national debate and sustained initiatives aimed at racial justice.
The third lesson concerns how memory is constructed. Controversy that seems terminal in one decade can recede in another as cultural attitudes shift. How historians, fans, and institutions remember Kaepernick will depend on continuing action by him and by the NFL. If the league implements substantive measures that address the protests’ core concerns, critics may soften. If it does not, Kaepernick’s protest will stand as a marker of institutional resistance.
Assessing Claims and Counterclaims
Skeptics argue that Kaepernick’s performance decline, rather than politics, explains why teams did not sign him. The passage of time, alterations in offensive schemes leaguewide, and the physical demands of quarterbacking at the highest level are legitimate factors. Evaluators legitimately weigh tape, biomechanics, and practice reps. That assessment, however, occurs alongside the reputational calculus each franchise conducts.
Supporters insist the decision not to sign Kaepernick was a political choice. The confidential settlement with the league lends weight to the claim that there was friction between him and NFL institutional structures. The absence of public adjudication leaves room for both interpretations. Evidence marshaled by both sides includes timing of team interest, public statements by owners and executives, and the practical consequences of signing a polarizing figure.
Ultimately, the debate about causation—whether the NFL intentionally blackballed Kaepernick—cannot be resolved definitively in the public record. The settlement resolved the grievance privately, and no definitive public finding followed. The unresolved nature of that dispute is itself telling: it reflects the limits of legal remedies for political harms and the opacity of decisions inside private institutions.
The Long View: How History Might Remember This Moment
Historical judgment rarely follows contemporary headlines. Figures once derided can be later honored; causes once unpopular can become mainstream. Kaepernick’s hope for a positive legacy depends on how future observers interpret the goals of his protest and the outcomes that trace to it.
Two decades from now, historians might record the anthem protests as part of a broader wave of athlete activism that reconfigured the relationship between sports and public life. In that view, Kaepernick is one of several athletes who catalyzed conversations and organizational changes. Alternatively, if the league’s commitments to social justice are judged performative, Kaepernick’s protest may stand as a rebuke that the institution failed to meet its rhetorical promises.
His memoir arrives in the middle of this tension. It will shape narrative frameworks and offer docudramatic elements—intimate recollection, behind-the-scenes descriptions, and clarifications that no news cycle has captured. Well-executed memoirs do not end debate; they reframe it. The Perilous Fight will likely do exactly that, making the conversation about Kaepernick more textured, and providing material for journalists, historians, and the public to reassess his place in sports history.
FAQ
Q: Did Colin Kaepernick actually have a workout with the Las Vegas Raiders? A: Yes. Kaepernick has said he worked out for the Raiders in 2022. The session was kept private by the team, and the organization did not publicize evaluations or outcomes. Kaepernick told NBC News that the workout represented his closest opportunity to return to the NFL.
Q: Is it proven that the NFL blackballed Kaepernick? A: Legally, the matter was not publicly adjudicated. Kaepernick filed a collusion grievance alleging NFL teams conspired to keep him out of the league; that grievance was resolved with a confidential settlement in 2019. The settlement did not produce a public finding, so claims of blackballing remain contested: advocates point to circumstantial evidence and the settlement; skeptics highlight performance and age as alternative explanations.
Q: What was the outcome of the collusion grievance Kaepernick filed? A: The grievance was settled privately with the NFL in 2019. The settlement terms were confidential, and no public court ruling established that collusion had occurred.
Q: What is The Perilous Fight? A: The Perilous Fight is Colin Kaepernick’s forthcoming memoir. It is expected to recount his journey as a player, the origins and impact of his anthem protests, and his views on activism and legacy. Memoirs offer authors a chance to control their narrative and present personal context for widely publicized events.
Q: Has Kaepernick been involved in activism outside of his protests? A: Yes. Kaepernick founded the Know Your Rights Camp in 2016, a program designed to educate young people about legal rights, civic participation, and empowerment strategies. He has supported various community initiatives, legal defense funds, and philanthropic projects focused on racial justice and education.
Q: Could Kaepernick return to the NFL in a coaching or executive role? A: It is possible but uncertain. Coaching requires networking within the league and a commitment to program-building, and teams would evaluate how such a hire would impact culture and public attention. Given his high profile and the political dimensions of his past, some organizations may be hesitant. However, alternative roles in media, content production, or philanthropy remain realistic avenues for influence.
Q: How did sponsors like Nike react to Kaepernick’s protests? A: Nike launched a prominent 2018 campaign featuring Kaepernick with the slogan “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” The campaign was polarizing but commercially successful for Nike. This partnership showed that major brands might align with activist-athletes, though reactions vary across markets and industries.
Q: Will Kaepernick’s protests be viewed differently over time? A: Historical interpretations evolve. Controversial stances in one era can become vindicated in the next as social norms change. Kaepernick’s long-term reputation will depend on how the NFL and society respond to the issues he raised, the durability of his philanthropic work, and ongoing reassessments by journalists and historians.
Q: What does Kaepernick hope people remember about him? A: He has said he wants a legacy that is “positive” and focused on impact. While his protests will likely remain a central part of his public story, he aims for future assessments to consider his activism, community work, and motives alongside his on-field achievements.
Q: Are there other athletes who faced similar backlash for protest? A: Yes. Athlete activism has a long history. Muhammad Ali, for instance, faced significant backlash and a ban from boxing for his refusal to be drafted. More recently, other NFL players who joined or supported protests experienced public criticism, altered career trajectories, or complex relationships with teams and the league. Outcomes have varied depending on timing, public sentiment, and the institutional contexts in which protests occurred.
Colin Kaepernick’s story is not reducible to a single moment. The kneel that launched a cultural debate is inseparable from the quarterback who once led a team to a championship game, the activist who built programs to educate youth, and the litigant who pressed a private league for accountability. His 2022 Raiders workout and the confidential settlement with the NFL add further ambiguity to a narrative that resists tidy conclusions. What remains clear is that Kaepernick’s actions reconfigured how athletes engage with social issues and how sports institutions reckon with dissent. His memoir, sustained activism, and the slow churn of institutional reform will shape how historians and the public narrate that transformation.
