Written by John Morley
Colin Kaepernick and the NFL Players Association have settled their case against the NFL in what Mike Carlson has described as a victory for the American activist.
"This is a victory for Colin Kaepernick and it’s not an issue of protest but process," Carlson noted on Monday's OTB AM.
The former San Francisco 49ers player had brought a case against the NFL after his loss of contract for his kneeling in protest of racial injustice and oppression during the American national anthem.
Kaepernick, in association with The Players Association, filed a case against the NFL for alleged collusion against him as a result of his public activism. Effectively "blackballing" the player from the league, Kaepernick has now been somewhat vindicated in his search for justice.
"It’s not vindicating his protest, the league hasn’t said you were right to do that," Carlson was keen to clarify.
"The league hasn’t said come back into football [either,] but what it has done in effect is to admit that they had blackballed him."
With a lot of pundits calling the settlement a draw, Carlson highlighted that the fact that the NFL backed down ahead of receipts from Kaepernick and his teammates were exposed showed by default that they had colluded against him.
"They wanted to stop the process before it got any further into investigating the terms of that and what had gone on with the league owners," Carlson said.
Kaepernick has settled with the NFL in a privately disclosed agreement as of the 15th of February.
Carlson went on to say that the beginnings of the settlement were set in stone from the ruling in August that there was enough evidence to take the collusion case further as there needs to be “substantial hard evidence”.
"The NFL were banking on the fact that there was no evidence of a collusion," Carlson stated of the organisation's attempt to keep their conceited plans quiet.
"Nobody ever sat down and said Kaepernick’s not playing for us.
"[Yet,] in August [Kaepernick’s] lawyers presented enough evidence to suggest that that was the case."
Kaepernick’s agent has now linked him with potential moves to the Panthers and the Patriots following the signing of Eric Reid, who also knelt in protest of the national anthem last year.
