One of the issues Colin Kaepernick’s camp had with the workout the NFL set up for the free agent quarterback is that they were informed on such short notice, and it will likely irritate Kaepernick and his people more to hear how long the league spent planning the event.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spent months working through details of a potential workout for Kaepernick and discussing the idea with some team owners, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports. Initial discussions about Kaepernick began before the start of the regular season, and the idea to host a workout for Kaepernick was reportedly Goodell’s idea.
Goodell is said to have proposed the idea to host a workout for Kaepernick not long after the NFL announced a partnership with Jay-Z and his company, Roc Nation. Jay-Z reportedly pushed the NFL to hold the workout, but a source insisted to La Canfora that it was Goodell who wanted to “do the right thing.”
“He really did a lot of this own his own, keeping everything very quiet,” the source said. “He probably spoke to 10 owners, at least … He really wanted to do the right there here, and I understand if some people will say that something should have happened sooner and it took too long, but you have to allow that there can be a course correction and Roger really did invest himself in this process.”
Kaepernick would likely argue that Goodell should have involved him and his people in the planning process if their intentions were pure, but Goodell apparently wanted to wait to be sure he had support from at least 20 teams. We laid out previously how we believe the NFL was trying to protect itself against a second lawsuit from Kaepernick after his representatives issued a press release in October.
Of course, the information all depends on the sources. NFL sources are motivated to make it seem as though the Kaepernick workout was not a publicity stunt, while many believe Kaepernick doesn’t truly want to play football again and would rather further the narrative that he has been blacklisted by the league.
Kaepernick ended up holding his own private workout due to supposed issues over media access and a waiver the NFL asked him to sign. Around a handful of teams attended, but it does not sound like he is any close to being signed than he was before the showcase.
