Kaepernick and Reid end their lawsuit against the NFL

Marvin49":2obmxteu said:

The_Z_Man":2obmxteu said:

Marvin49":2obmxteu said:

Jussie Smollett? Please. That dude is a disgrace. He has done nothing but hurt the cause. He pisses me off because all his saga does is give people who wear red hats (this isn't pointed at you) something to point at and say its ALL BS. Its not.

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What about people who wear blue hats? lol


There are many disgraces, Smollett is just one in a long line of hoaxes that have been perpetrated over the last few years.

I think the underlying problem is that the internet connecting everyone has made everyone feel "small", we are no longer in little ponds where every fish has their moment to be noticed, so the need to feel important has created a society where everyone needs to be special in some way, and if you aren't particular motivated or focused, or athletic, or talented, or pretty enough to make duck lips on Instagram, the best way you can achieve attention is by being more pathetic than someone else... hence the victim culture.

You see it every day on Facebook. Someone gets a frakking cold, you have to listen to a week of posts on how much they are suffering...

One wonders what Kaep might have achieved had he put more energy into being a better football player.

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That's one way to looking about it, but people being beaten up and killed because of their sexual preference is a real thing. Someone PRETENDING it happened to them for some other gain is a huge disservice to the people it really happens to and personally its repugnant to me.

There is a certain brand of people who think a certain way politically who will grab hold of the Smollett story and use it is a dagger in any argument on this topic as if its the rule and not the exception. That does actual damage.

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People will use 1 bad actor (no pun) working a real issue to their own benefit over the countless other victims and survivors of that issue. Apathy is a helluva drug and the fix is using bad actor examples to diminish and ignore issues.

Marvin49":wwpaaod6 said:

When did Kap "play victim". His social stance is kneeling for OTHER PEOPLE who don't have a voice. All he did as kneel and answer questions posed to him directly. It was EVERYONE ELSE who blew this thing up.

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He played the victim after he was no longer (or barely) a starting caliber QB, mostly because of his play, but partly because he was too much of a distraction by spending his time on the field pushing false narratives (kneeling, pig socks after cops died) and off the field (too many quotes, many on twitter) in a way that further divides a country.

We can't talk about politics so we'll leave it there.

Too bad we live in a world where athletes/celebrities opinions on the world seem to mean a lot.

massari":ncahkm86 said:

Marvin49":ncahkm86 said:

When did Kap "play victim". His social stance is kneeling for OTHER PEOPLE who don't have a voice. All he did as kneel and answer questions posed to him directly. It was EVERYONE ELSE who blew this thing up.

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He played the victim after he was no longer (or barely) a starting caliber QB, mostly because of his play, but partly because he was too much of a distraction by spending his time on the field pushing false narratives (kneeling, pig socks after cops died) and off the field (too many quotes, many on twitter) in a way that further divides a country.

We can't talk about politics so we'll leave it there.

Too bad we live in a world where athletes/celebrities opinions on the world seem to mean a lot.

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If anyone pulled what Kaepernick did before a shift at Boeing, they'd be fired. I don't see why Kaepernick is special.

Maulbert":3oolrue1 said:

massari":3oolrue1 said:

Marvin49":3oolrue1 said:

When did Kap "play victim". His social stance is kneeling for OTHER PEOPLE who don't have a voice. All he did as kneel and answer questions posed to him directly. It was EVERYONE ELSE who blew this thing up.

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He played the victim after he was no longer (or barely) a starting caliber QB, mostly because of his play, but partly because he was too much of a distraction by spending his time on the field pushing false narratives (kneeling, pig socks after cops died) and off the field (too many quotes, many on twitter) in a way that further divides a country.

We can't talk about politics so we'll leave it there.

Too bad we live in a world where athletes/celebrities opinions on the world seem to mean a lot.

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If anyone pulled what Kaepernick did before a shift at Boeing, they'd be fired. I don't see why Kaepernick is special.

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Because it's not the same as a shift at Boeing whatsoever and any attempt to draw an analogy only reveals the depth of your idiocy?

Boeing over 200.000 employees, a list of people waiting to be employed. NFL .1 percent of all football players go to college and .1 percent of those get a shot in the NFL and about .1 percent of them make it. Kaep was at the top of the heap a Starting QB. That's the platform he started out on.

Maulbert":33jbwuz4 said:

massari":33jbwuz4 said:

Marvin49":33jbwuz4 said:

When did Kap "play victim". His social stance is kneeling for OTHER PEOPLE who don't have a voice. All he did as kneel and answer questions posed to him directly. It was EVERYONE ELSE who blew this thing up.

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He played the victim after he was no longer (or barely) a starting caliber QB, mostly because of his play, but partly because he was too much of a distraction by spending his time on the field pushing false narratives (kneeling, pig socks after cops died) and off the field (too many quotes, many on twitter) in a way that further divides a country.

We can't talk about politics so we'll leave it there.

Too bad we live in a world where athletes/celebrities opinions on the world seem to mean a lot.

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If anyone pulled what Kaepernick did before a shift at Boeing, they'd be fired. I don't see why Kaepernick is special.

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They aren't required to stand for the National Anthem at Boeing and if anyone took a knee I doubt highly that they'd have been fired.

massari":jh79p8ou said:

Marvin49":jh79p8ou said:

When did Kap "play victim". His social stance is kneeling for OTHER PEOPLE who don't have a voice. All he did as kneel and answer questions posed to him directly. It was EVERYONE ELSE who blew this thing up.

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He played the victim after he was no longer (or barely) a starting caliber QB, mostly because of his play, but partly because he was too much of a distraction by spending his time on the field pushing false narratives (kneeling, pig socks after cops died) and off the field (too many quotes, many on twitter) in a way that further divides a country.

We can't talk about politics so we'll leave it there.

Too bad we live in a world where athletes/celebrities opinions on the world seem to mean a lot.

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I'm sorry, but that is BS.

All the dude did was kneel for the Anthem. Then he played. His level of play isn't the issue at all.

He sued the NFL because he felt the league colluded to keep him unemployed. Its a simple labor dispute that so many who don't like him choose to see as him playing victim.

Its like when he protested and people took issue with the fact that he protested whle making millions, as if protesting comes with a maximum salary requirement. If you make X dollars then shut up. If HE wasn't being personally persecuted, how dare he make a statement about something he didn't think was right.

The lawsuit and his protest are separate things.

massari":11srffu4 said:

Marvin49":11srffu4 said:

When did Kap "play victim". His social stance is kneeling for OTHER PEOPLE who don't have a voice. All he did as kneel and answer questions posed to him directly. It was EVERYONE ELSE who blew this thing up.

Click to expand...

He played the victim after he was no longer (or barely) a starting caliber QB, mostly because of his play, but partly because he was too much of a distraction by spending his time on the field pushing false narratives (kneeling, pig socks after cops died) and off the field (too many quotes, many on twitter) in a way that further divides a country.

We can't talk about politics so we'll leave it there.

Too bad we live in a world where athletes/celebrities opinions on the world seem to mean a lot.

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The same NFL that has players like Nathan Peterman, Case Keenum and others starting, Kaep being better than them.

Marvin49":vizo7gxz said:

massari":vizo7gxz said:

Marvin49":vizo7gxz said:

When did Kap "play victim". His social stance is kneeling for OTHER PEOPLE who don't have a voice. All he did as kneel and answer questions posed to him directly. It was EVERYONE ELSE who blew this thing up.

Click to expand...

He played the victim after he was no longer (or barely) a starting caliber QB, mostly because of his play, but partly because he was too much of a distraction by spending his time on the field pushing false narratives (kneeling, pig socks after cops died) and off the field (too many quotes, many on twitter) in a way that further divides a country.

We can't talk about politics so we'll leave it there.

Too bad we live in a world where athletes/celebrities opinions on the world seem to mean a lot.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but that is BS.

All the dude did was kneel for the Anthem. Then he attempted to play. His level of play is the issue.

He sued the NFL because he felt the league colluded to keep him unemployed. Its a simple labor dispute that so many who don't like him choose to see as him playing victim.

Its like when he protested and people took issue with the fact that he protested whle making millions, as if protesting comes with a maximum salary requirement. If you make X dollars then shut up. If HE wasn't being personally persecuted, how dare he make a statement about something he didn't think was right.

The lawsuit and his protest are separate things.

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Fixed it for you.

rlkats":3hqr7vt0 said:

Marvin49":3hqr7vt0 said:

massari":3hqr7vt0 said:

Marvin49":3hqr7vt0 said:

When did Kap "play victim". His social stance is kneeling for OTHER PEOPLE who don't have a voice. All he did as kneel and answer questions posed to him directly. It was EVERYONE ELSE who blew this thing up.

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He played the victim after he was no longer (or barely) a starting caliber QB, mostly because of his play, but partly because he was too much of a distraction by spending his time on the field pushing false narratives (kneeling, pig socks after cops died) and off the field (too many quotes, many on twitter) in a way that further divides a country.

We can't talk about politics so we'll leave it there.,,,

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People forget that Kaep was a prima donna that ultimately cost the 49ers more than he was worth. He shopped to the Broncos before the kneeling started, and they said no. He was shopped to the Seahawks after (as a backup) and they said no because Kaep wouldn't agree to stop on-field protesting, as Reid did.

True, teams don't want a second-string QB that brings political controversy laser-focused on their club. They don't want to invest in someone who's gone through three coaches trying to help him get better and then dumps on their club, especially if that person's a second-stringer. That's too much maintenance for a club realistically to invest in.

The NFL settled this likely b/c Kaep demonstrated his PR liability and they wanted it to go away. Teams are just as free to hire him or not now that this happened, and my guess is that they won't.

mrt144":sfbpg3aj said:

5_Golden_Rings":sfbpg3aj said:

The_Z_Man":sfbpg3aj said:

The NFL settled because the lawsuit would have given the player's union access to NFL documents they could use in negotiations.

That was the reason the player's union went all in backing up Kaep in this lawsuit. They're pissed at him he settled.

The union didn't care about him, what they wanted was access to certain communications between owners that they could bring to the bartering table.

Not because of any collusion evidence against Kaep.

They're paying out 80 million to one guy to save paying out an extra billion to the players two years from now.

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Well, that is certainly a reasonable motive for the NFLPA, and even the NFL for settling, but that is quite immaterial to whether or not Kaepernick’s lawyers had evidence of collusion.

My question is this: why would the NFL be forced to hand over communications to the NFLPA unless they LOST, and how could they lose unless there was actual evidence of collusion?

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Usually in civil litigation both sides enter a pretrial discovery process to uncover evidence that might support their case. It'd be pretty amazing if the NFL somehow could have avoided that and still won their case on the notion that "the plaintiff doesn't have any evidence because we purposefully withheld it prior to trial. Oh, by the way, here are the purposefully curated emails that only support our case and the plaintiff can't see more than that even though there might be more."

For the NFLPA discovery was valuable in itself.
For the overall case discovery was valuable as well.

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I'm not abreast of law, but how would the NFLPA be able to prove that evidence wasn't handed over in a discovery process?

rlkats":39b8lfm1 said:

Marvin49":39b8lfm1 said:

massari":39b8lfm1 said:

Marvin49":39b8lfm1 said:

When did Kap "play victim". His social stance is kneeling for OTHER PEOPLE who don't have a voice. All he did as kneel and answer questions posed to him directly. It was EVERYONE ELSE who blew this thing up.

Click to expand...

He played the victim after he was no longer (or barely) a starting caliber QB, mostly because of his play, but partly because he was too much of a distraction by spending his time on the field pushing false narratives (kneeling, pig socks after cops died) and off the field (too many quotes, many on twitter) in a way that further divides a country.

We can't talk about politics so we'll leave it there.

Too bad we live in a world where athletes/celebrities opinions on the world seem to mean a lot.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but that is BS.

All the dude did was kneel for the Anthem. Then he attempted to play. His level of play is the issue.

He sued the NFL because he felt the league colluded to keep him unemployed. Its a simple labor dispute that so many who don't like him choose to see as him playing victim.

Its like when he protested and people took issue with the fact that he protested whle making millions, as if protesting comes with a maximum salary requirement. If you make X dollars then shut up. If HE wasn't being personally persecuted, how dare he make a statement about something he didn't think was right.

The lawsuit and his protest are separate things.

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Fixed it for you.

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His level of play was superior to about half of the back up quarterbacks in the NFL. When are we going to get past the "pretend that everyone doesn't know what's really going on" part of this? It's been two years and people are still lying to themselves. Fortunately some people who DO NOT support him admit what it's about.

People are still to this day acting like his protest played no role in his employment status. How is it that everyone's bullsh--- meter isn't exploding at that?

5_Golden_Rings":3r2nic58 said:

People are still to this day acting like his protest played no role in his employment status. How is it that everyone's bullsh--- meter isn't exploding at that?

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Like you, I think it's probably 70% just political polarization and sectarianism.

Like if we think of Good vs. Bad Quarterback and Good vs. Bad Political Protest as a two-by-two table, there's quite frankly just very few people who go for the Good QB/Bad Protest and Bad QB/Good Protest combinations. There's probably some people out there who fall in those category combinations, but it's not many.

The other 30% I think doesn't have anything to do with the protests, and it's just that NFL fans are generally really bad at talking about mediocre QBs. We do this weird thing at the QB position where guys either have to be either really good or suck.

The great comparative example for this in which we can isolate that issue out from any political issues (particularly for us 9ers fans) is all of the Alex Smith insanity that infected our fanbase when he was traded to the Chiefs.

Alex Smith is a perfectly fine QB: he's not exceptional and he's not terrible. NFL fans can't deal with that though so you had one segment of 9ers fans insisting he was underrated and amazing and another insisting that he was atrocious and the absolute worst.

Using a few more examples, we don't need political opinions and beliefs to acknowledge that NFL fans don't really know how to deal with guys like Andy Dalton, Joe Flacco, Jameis Winston, Derek Carr, Case Keenum, late career Eli Manning, etc., etc.

They're in that big amorphous middle of QBs who aren't particularly good and aren't particularly bad, but when you dig into their teams' fanbases people are going crazy over if they're good or absolutely suck. The answer is neither, they're not good and they don't absolutely suck: they're in between.

In addition to the protests, Kaepernick falls into that gray zone of moderate ability that we can't deal with very well, IMO.

SkyHawks16":220atv3t said:

The same NFL that has players like Nathan Peterman, Case Keenum and others starting, Kaep being better than them.

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Kaepernick was a fringe starter who was is in the same tier as Tyrod Taylor. He pushed himself out of that because of all the distractions. If it was Patrick Mahomes in his situation, it wouldn't matter to any team.

Personally, I don't understand why the media and some fans give any attention or actually care what an athlete/actor/musician ect says about anything, even the false narratives Kaepernick was pushing, but they do and I don't blame teams for not wanting that distraction.

I actually wanted him to backup Wilson when he was visiting the Seahawks, but he declined since he makes far more money playing a professional victim.

Here are the opening day 2017 starting QB's, the season Kaepernick was "blackballed", the season after being benched in favor of Blaine Gabbert because of poor play:

Matt Ryan ATL
Tom Brady NE
Dak Prescott DAL
Aaron Rodgers GB
Drew Brees NO
Kirk Cousins WSH
Derek Carr OAK
Andrew Luck IND
Marcus Mariota TEN
Ben Roethlisberger PIT
Ryan Tannehill MIA
Matthew Stafford QB DET
Russell Wilson SEA
Andy Dalton CIN
Alex Smith KC
Philip Rivers LAC
Carson Palmer ARI
Jameis Winston TB
Eli Manning NYG
Joe Flacco BAL
Carson Wentz PHI
Blake Bortles JAX
Jared Goff LAR
Cam Newton CAR
Deshaun Watson HOU
Josh McCown NYJ 2017 stats: 67.3 PCT 2,926 Yards 18 TD 9 INT 94.5 Rate
Tyrod Taylor BUF 2017 stats: 62.6 PCT 2,799 Yards 14 TD 4 INT 89.2 Rate
Case Keenum MIN 2017 stats: 67.6 PCT 3,547 Yards 22 TD 7 INT 98.3 Rate
Trevor Siemian DEN 2016 stats: 59.5 PCT 3,401 Yards 18 TD 10 INT 84.6 Rate
Brian Hoyer SF
DeShone Kizer CLE

Looking back in hindsight, the only obvious ones that he was an upgrade over at that point (excluding his distractions) were Hoyer and Kizer.

massari":1cemqvee said:

SkyHawks16":1cemqvee said:

The same NFL that has players like Nathan Peterman, Case Keenum and others starting, Kaep being better than them.

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Kaepernick was a fringe starter who was is in the same tier as Tyrod Taylor. He pushed himself out of that because of all the distractions. If it was Patrick Mahomes in his situation, it wouldn't matter to any team.

Personally, I don't understand why the media and some fans give any attention or actually care what an athlete/actor/musician ect says about anything, even the false narratives Kaepernick was pushing, but they do and I don't blame teams for not wanting that distraction.

I actually wanted him to backup Wilson when he was visiting the Seahawks, but he declined since he makes far more money playing a professional victim.

Here are the opening day 2017 starting QB's, the season Kaepernick was "blackballed", the season after being benched in favor of Blaine Gabbert because of poor play:

Matt Ryan ATL
Tom Brady NE
Dak Prescott DAL
Aaron Rodgers GB
Drew Brees NO
Kirk Cousins WSH
Derek Carr OAK
Andrew Luck IND
Marcus Mariota TEN
Ben Roethlisberger PIT
Ryan Tannehill MIA
Matthew Stafford QB DET
Russell Wilson SEA
Andy Dalton CIN
Alex Smith KC
Philip Rivers LAC
Carson Palmer ARI
Jameis Winston TB
Eli Manning NYG
Joe Flacco BAL
Carson Wentz PHI
Blake Bortles JAX
Jared Goff LAR
Cam Newton CAR
Deshaun Watson HOU
Josh McCown NYJ 2017 stats: 67.3 PCT 2,926 Yards 18 TD 9 INT 94.5 Rate
Tyrod Taylor BUF 2017 stats: 62.6 PCT 2,799 Yards 14 TD 4 INT 89.2 Rate
Case Keenum MIN 2017 stats: 67.6 PCT 3,547 Yards 22 TD 7 INT 98.3 Rate
Trevor Siemian DEN 2016 stats: 59.5 PCT 3,401 Yards 18 TD 10 INT 84.6 Rate
Brian Hoyer SF
DeShone Kizer CLE

Looking back in hindsight, the only obvious ones that he was an upgrade over at that point (excluding his distractions) were Hoyer and Kizer.

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I didn't even look at your list because the bolded comment is so separated from the facts that I couldn't read anymore.

Kap was replaced as the starter because he'd had 3 separate surgeries in the offseason (knee, shoulder and thumb) and as a result of those surgeries had lost a ton of weight. He was like a string bean and clearly not fully recovered.

Once he had recovered, Kap took over and finished the season. To peeps who hate Kap for whatever reason, they LOOOOOVE the "he lost the job to Gabbert" story line, but quoting it says nothing more than you don't have a clue what yer talking about.

Marvin49":ff1zv9o8 said:

I didn't even look at your list because the bolded comment is so separated from the facts that I couldn't read anymore.

Kap was replaced as the starter because he'd had 3 separate surgeries in the offseason (knee, shoulder and thumb) and as a result of those surgeries had lost a ton of weight. He was like a string bean and clearly not fully recovered.

Once he had recovered, Kap took over and finished the season. To peeps who hate Kap for whatever reason, they LOOOOOVE the "he lost the job to Gabbert" story line, but quoting it says nothing more than you don't have a clue what yer talking about.

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He was benched in favor of Gabbert near the end of the season because the coaches thought "we needed a spark." Wasn't referring to when Gabbert beat him out as the starter at the beginning of the season.

Now go back and look at those starting QB's and tell me who Kaepernick is CLEARLY better than at that point, even excluding his distractions and salary demands.

I got Hoyer and Kizer as the only obvious ones. You could make an argument for Keenum and McCown, but look at the passing numbers they posted that season with such little cap hits. And Trevor Siemian was coming off a very good rookie season, was even named pro bowl alternate.