Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been invited to the next meeting between NFL players and owners to discuss social injustice issues, a league spokesperson said on Wednesday.
NFL vice president of communications Joe Lockhart said on the league’s weekly conference call that Kaepernick has been invited to the meeting next week in New York, but was uncertain whether the free-agent signal-caller would be attending. Lockhart added the invitation was extended by the players and not the league.
“We look forward to him joining the conversation,” Lockhart said.
He added: “My understanding is Colin Kaepernick has been invited to these last two meetings. He has been in the discussion with the players’ coalition. I expect that he will be invited to this meeting. We look forward to him joining the conversation with the (NFL Players Association), but I don’t have any confirmation that he’s planning to attend.”
Yahoo’s Charles Robinson reported later Wednesday that Kaepernick will attend and that “players are happy to have him join”.
Kaepernick was not present at a meeting last week at the league’s midtown Manhattan headquarters that was attended by 13 players, 11 team owners, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith and several others. After a four-hour session, Goodell determined he would not require players to stand for the Star-Spangled Banner.
“We believe that our players should stand for the national anthem,” Goodell said last week. “We want our players to stand, we’re going to continue to encourage them to stand.”
He added: “We have about a half a dozen players that are protesting. We hope and we’re going to continue to work to try to put that at zero.”
Mark Geragos, the attorney representing Kaepernick in recently filed grievance claiming collusion by NFL owners, issued a statement last week indicating that his client did not receive an invitation from “any official from the NFL or any team executives”.
While Kaepernick has remained jobless since opting out of his contract with San Francisco in March, the 29-year-old did sign a book deal with Random House imprint One World worth more than $1m, the New York Post reported on Tuesday.
Kaepernick completed 59.2% of his passes, averaged 6.8 yards per attempt and threw 16 touchdowns with four interceptions in 12 games for the 49ers last season. But his refusal to stand for the anthem to draw attention to police brutality and racial injustice became a far bigger story than his on-field performance, ultimately making him the target of bellicose rhetoric from US president Donald Trump last month.
Lockhart acknowledged on Wednesday that the ongoing protests around the league have impacted the NFL’s image.
“The NFL brand is always about unity and not about politics,” Lockhart said. “When politics gets injected into any business, that can have an impact on the brand. I will say this, we are in constant contact with our sponsors. Our sponsors come to work with the NFL because we’re not generally in the middle of political debates. We’re not generally being attacked by one side or the other, and that we are a unifying force.
“We believe that we are. Our business is very strong and that remains the case.”
