Sources Credit JAY-Z’s NFL Partnership With Getting Colin Kaepernick A Workout

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On Tuesday (November 12), it was reported that Colin Kaepernick will be participating in a workout for NFL franchises. The news came almost three years since Kaep’ took an NFL snap. Since then, he settled with the league on a formal grievance surrounding collusion between team owners against his playing. Now, top sports analysts are connecting this development with the efforts of Jay-Z. In August, the Roc Nation founder partnered with the NFL to assist social justice initiatives and entertainment programming.

“To me, the name that comes to my mind is JAY-Z,” Stephen A. Smith said in a clip re-posted on his social media. “Why? Because JAY-Z meets with Commissioner Roger Goodell. At that particular moment in time, he’s excoriated. All of a sudden, Hov, who everybody loved, a whole bunch of folks turned against him, accusing him of selling out, turning in his ‘Black card’ and all of this ridiculous nonsense. And what did he say? He said listen, folks are gonna work behind the scenes.”

JAY-Z Is Partnering With The NFL On Social Justice & Entertainment Initiatives

Smith continued, “[He] called the NFL office, called the Players Association, spoke to a whole bunch of people. Clearly there appears to be a collective effort that has taken place to include these teams with league participation and league approval, obviously. So, it appears to be something very, very serious and the only thing that can get in the way of Colin Kaepernick being back in the NFL is if he refuses to shut up and/or he goes out there and shows that he can’t play.”

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This is exactly what came to my mind the second I heard about Kaepernick and his upcoming NFL workout:
A post shared by Stephen A. Smith (@stephenasmith) on Nov 13, 2019 at 10:06am PST

Yesterday, “NFL insider,” reporter Ian Rapoport, also stated that he understands JAY-Z’s partnership with the league had “some influence here.” Rapoport also denied that the workout has any ties whatsoever to the early 2019 settlement that Colin Kaepernick reached with the NFL.

Two notes: 1. Jay-Z, a partner with the NFL on social justice, had some influence here. 2. This is not part of Kaepernick’s settlement, nor did he ask for this in his settlement. https://t.co/6l7z3MYJ5x
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 13, 2019