There has been speculation that Colin Kaepernick must have received an enormous amount of money from the NFL to agree to settle his collusion case against the league, but the quarterback was not paid as much as many people think.
Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal reports that Kaepernick and Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid received less than $10 million combined in their settlement with the NFL. The settlement included a confidentiality agreement that prevents the parties from discussing the financial details, and both an NFL spokesperson and attorneys representing Kaepernick and Reid declined to comment on the report.
Kaepernick and his attorney Mark Geragos filed a lawsuit against the NFL in Oct. 2017 alleging there was collusion by the league and its owners to keep Kaepernick from being offered a contract. Reid, who was also involved with national anthem protests and protesting social injustice, joined the lawsuit before he was signed by the Panthers.
Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since 2016, and he would have potentially been able to make tens of millions if he was able to successfully argue that there was collusion. However, legal experts have said that would be incredibly difficult to prove. That is part of what made it surprising that the NFL was willing to settle, but perhaps that is because the settlement did not cost the league much money.
For someone whose slogan became “believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything,” the settlement from Kaepernick was a big surprise. The issue of players being “paid off” to not protest was at the root of the problems with the Players Coalition, and the fact that Kaepernick and Reid took less than $10 million to end the fight is not going to sit well with some.
