Leftist Sportswriter Suggests Kaepernick Should File Collusion Suit Against NFL

When the Seattle Seahawks signed the awful Austin Davis to serve as their backup quarterback, the Colin Kaepernick fanboys in the media erupted in outrage.

Kaepernick had after all been invited for a tryout by the Seahawks who were thought by many to be the perfect fit for the oppressed multimillionaire due to the far-left demographic of the Emerald City, its Bohemian population, and a Starbucks on nearly every corner.

It was thought to be such a done deal that Spike Lee posted it on social media but he quickly retracted it.

But the Seahawks ultimately made the decision not to offer a contract to Kaepernick who now seems to be out of options for the upcoming NFL season.

This didn’t sit well with former Black Lives Matter activist and New York Daily News columnist Shaun King who announced that he was boycotting the NFL due to “anti-blackness”, a claim that is ludicrous when considering that the majority of the players are African American.

But leftist sports columnist Dave Zirin is taking it a step further by suggesting that Kaepernick file a collusion lawsuit against the National Football League, one that he claims could net the social justice warrior in cleats up to nine figures.

If @Kaepernick7 pursues lawsuit w/evidence, he could take @nfl for enough money to buy his own damn team & call them the LA Know Your Rights

— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) June 2, 2017

Zirin accuses the NFL of engaging in a “disinformation” campaign in order to “blackball” Kaepernick.

NFL owners don’t make pariahs out of players who beat women, but Kaepernick went too far. https://t.co/WASwrgg1aN

— The Nation (@thenation) June 9, 2017

In a column for the liberal weekly The Nation entitled “The NFL’s War Against Colin Kaepernick”, Zirin writes:

I have spoken with Kaepernick, and I can say that he wants to play. He is training six days a week, and he is not holding out for money. He simply wants a camp invite. As lesser back-up quarterbacks continue to be signed, his pariah status has become a spectacle without precedent.

AND

Kaepernick’s pariah status is about sending a shot across the bow at every political athlete—particularly black athletes—that they better toe the line. The owners are again sending the message—just like when they tried to “influence” research on the effects of brain injuries in the sport—that the lives of players simply do not matter to the National Football League.

The big mystery is whether what is happening is an old-school “blackballing” or if this is a conscious and coordinated campaign. Former NFL player Eric Davis implied strongly that he thought that the NFL had contacted the Seahawks and told them not to sign Kaepernick. If this turns out to be true, we are no longer in the realm of blackballing. We are talking about collusion. That could mean lawsuits. Not just ordinary lawsuits, but nine-figure lawsuits. Major League Baseball had to pay out $280 million in 1990, when it was found guilty of collusion, and anytime you’re dealing with the closed market of professional sports leagues, with their myriad antitrust provisions, collusion penalties can cost a fortune.

The NFL had best consider this to be a veiled threat from Kaepernick speaking through an ideologically friendly mouthpiece who has communicated with him.

The writer also conjures up the case of domestic abuser Josh Brown of the New York Giants but the two are apples and oranges. Brown’s spousal abuse was disgusting and horrific but it was an incident in his own private life and he was dumped once it became a distraction to the team.

Kaepernick chose to put his own agenda before that of his teammates and the organization that was signing his paychecks in order to become a national symbol of misguided protest that alienated fans and cost the league millions in lost revenue.

Sadly, with knee-jerk liberals, the notion that the Seahawks – or any other team – just don’t want to have to deal with the traveling media circus that would accompany Kaepernick and cause a distraction never enters their minds.

In an ultra-competitive league it takes extreme focus to win consistently and for a team with Super Bowl aspirations like Seattle, the last thing that they need are more issues in their locker room.

Nor does the idea that Kaepernick chose to engage in his protests while he was in uniform for his employer and on the clock. This would get anyone else in corporate America immediately fired yet there is a different standard for an inconsistent backup quarterback with an ax to grind against what he perceives to be a racist country.

Zirin has done some fine work at times and is a talented writer. There is nothing wrong with a leftist take on the games but as with many in sports today, the line is being crossed from reporting on the games into full blown activism.

Continuing to wage a crusade on behalf of Kaepernick is a fool’s errand, he is an adult capable of making his own decisions and needs to take responsibility for the consequences.