When two dozen NFL representatives and players met last week to discuss the issues behind a league-wide protest during the national anthem, it was strange that the guy who started the movement wasn’t involved.
That could change.
Colin Kaepernick, who was not at the Oct. 13 get-together in New York, will be invited to the next meeting, an NFL spokesman told reporters Wednesday during a conference call. The meeting is expected to happen Tuesday in New York.
“We look forward to him joining the conversation,” said Joe Lockhart, executive vice president of communications for the NFL.
The original meeting included 13 current or former players, plus 11 owners and representatives from the NFL and NFLPA, according to ESPN. The league did not formally invite Kaepernick, who began the movement to raise awareness for the mistreatment of minorities by police officers and racial inequality by sitting and then kneeling during the national anthem last season. Many other players joined him in the protest, which has spread to other sports and other countries.
The league became more involved in the discussion about the protests in part because President Trump has attacked the players who kneel or sit several times on social media and at press conferences, igniting further tensions by urging owners to “get that son of a b—h off the field” and to cut players who protest during the anthem.
Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins had informally invited Kaepernick, who did not attend. Kaepernick filed a grievance against the 32 NFL owners on Oct. 15, accusing them of colluding to keep him out of the NFL this season. Several teams have had to justify not pursuing Kaepernick, who threw for 16 touchdowns and ran for two more last season against four interceptions, while signing other clearly inferior options.
The latest team to be criticized for this is the Cardinals, who will play Drew Stanton (14 touchdowns, 20 interceptions in 34 career games) after starter Carson Palmer was injured. Palmer has a broken arm, and his timeline remains unclear. The Cardinals (3-4) are one game out of a wild-card spot, but will go forward with Stanton and Blaine Gabbert, who lost the starting job last season with the 49ers to Kaepernick and is 9-34 in his career as a starting quarterback.
While he’s become the most famous unemployed NFL player this season, Kaepernick has stayed out of the public spotlight, but he has donated nearly $1 million to various charities.