Talking to CNBC today, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell maintained that former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was not being blackballed, despite all evidence to the contrary.
But who are you going to believe—Goodell or your lying, not-seeing-Colin-Kaepernick-in-uniform eyes?
In fact, Goodell told CNBC’s Squawk Box that Kaepernick is “welcome to come over and meet at any point and time.”
“We had an open door on that,” Goodell said. “There was some meeting set up with the player’s coalition, and they were invited by the player’s coalition.”
Goodell wants to make clear that the NFL is completely fine with Kaepernick kicking it from time to time, but that doesn’t actually rebut Kaepernick’s claims that NFL owners were colluding to keep him out of the league. This is basically like that one bad cousin/friend you had growing up whom your parents didn’t really fuck with but tolerated coming over so long as it wasn’t often and there was some sort of supervision.
When asked about whether Kaepernick ought to be playing in the NFL, Goodell demurred.
“Each and every club’s got to make those decisions,” Goodell told CNBC. “They make those decisions based on a lot of factors that are best for their football team. And when they do that, that’s what’s in the best interest.”
Completely coincidentally, each team just figured that Kaepernick, a free agent, wasn’t in their “best interest” despite being a statistically far better player than quite a few current starting quarterbacks.
Consider this Washington Post article from earlier this year, which found that 15 starting quarterbacks were statistically worse than Kaepernick. Apparently, if you’re the Miami Dolphins, the Baltimore Ravens or the Tennessee Titans, winning just isn’t in your best interest.
In October, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL that accuses NFL owners of the obvious—that they colluded to bar him from playing in the league again. In November, a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter revealed that Goodell would be deposed in Kaepernick’s lawsuit, meaning that the commissioner would have to turn over email and cellphone records that relate to Kaepernick’s collusion case against the NFL.
Despite the NFL’s bullshit, Kaepernick has been living his best life this year. Last week, none other than the queen mother, Beyoncé, honored him with Sports Illustrated’s Muhammad Ali Legacy Award for his protests during the 2016 NFL season. Before that, he was honored as GQ’s Citizen of the Year, a decision that unleashed a nationwide torrent of white tears.
Read more at CNBC.