Ever since the famous kneeling during the anthem, Colin Kaepernick has become an icon for his movement protesting police brutality, as well as advocating for social justice reform.

He has also become a punching bag for conservative voices who felt that Kaepernick’s protest during the national anthem was a disgrace to the country, the military, etc. This was during August of the 2016 NFL season, after which he was released by the San Francisco 49ers. He has been out of a job ever since. This didn’t end his story, as numerous athletes and sports media have since asked, “Why isn’t Kap in the league?”

As of Feb. 16, Kaepernick, along with former teammate Eric Reid, settled their collusion suit against the NFL, for a suspected $40 Million. Kaepernick’s attorney, Mark Geragos, and the NFL said in a joint statement, “for the past several months, counsel for Kaepernick and Mr. Reid have engaged in an ongoing dialogue with representatives of the NFL. As a result of those discussions, the parties have decided to resolve the pending grievances. The resolution of this matter is subject to a confidentiality agreement, so there will be no further comment by any party.”

On Oct. 16, 2017, it was announced that Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL and its owners for colluding to keep him out of the league.

The suit demanded a hearing on the matter and said, “the NFL and its owners have colluded to deprive Mr. Kaepernick of employment rights in retaliation for Mr. Kaepernick’s leadership and advocacy for equality and social justice and his bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States,” according to ESPN.

The move reinvigorated tension on social media platforms, wondering if the NFL as a collective whole barred Kaepernick from playing for an NFL team. Many rumors have swirled since then to defame Kap. Rumors like: he wants too much money or he won’t accept a backup position. Athletes started coming out saying “I’m with Kap” or “I kneel with Kap.”

Conservatives came out in force against him after this move, particularly the president, who said in 2018 that players who don’t stand for the anthem should be banned from the NFL.

Due to the confidentiality agreement, we may never find out if the NFL owners did, in fact, conspire/collude to make sure an NFL team would not sign Kap.

According to Forbes writer Patrick Rishe, “The Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid settling their collusion case against the NFL certainly implies that both sides saw a potential to lose the case. Furthermore, with the court rejecting the NFL’s attempt for summary judgment, there had to have been NFL staff and owners concerned about publicly-revealed documents coming to light which could shed further negative light onto the NFL.”

This case does not help the NFL’s claimed innocence considering they failed to get a summary judgment, which is when a party attempts to show there is absolutely no material evidence to prove the opposing party’s material fact.

While I’m happy for Kap and he deserves every cent of what he supposedly got… this feels like a pay-off to me. Ever since he took a knee on the sidelines, the NFL has been trying its hardest to get rid of all media coverage and distract the world from the Kap story. All the controversy was becoming such a bad look for the NFL in 2017, and they introduced new rules for the anthem saying players can have the choice to not come out of the locker room.

This move did not pan out well, as it ended up satisfying nobody, as well as not stopping players from kneeling on the sidelines.

That being said, this settlement feels like a win-win for both sides because Kaepernick is going to get a decent amount of money from the NFL, even after taxes. However, he cannot discuss any of the details publicly, leading many to wonder if there was some form of proof that owners did not want Kaepernick on teams, or if the NFL desires to make the story go away.