Colin Kaepernick files grievance alleging collusion by NFL owners

He’s calling it the No Fair League.

Lightning rod quarterback Colin Kaepernick has filed a grievance against NFL owners he says have conspired to keep him out of football over his controversial national anthem protest.

Despite six weeks of the season in the books, and a string of vacancies across the league, Kaepernick – whose kneeling national anthem protest drew the attention of even President Trump – has remained unsigned by any of the league’s 32 teams since he cut ties with the San Francisco 49ers last year.

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Kaepernick, 29, insists he has been sidelined by corporate collusion, and has filed an official complaint under the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and its players.

The grievance, which also names NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, appeared to have been filed before yet another roster spot opened up Sunday with the season-ending injury of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who suffered a broken collar bone.

It was unclear if there were any talks between Kaepernick and the Packers.

“Mr. Kaepernick became a free agent on or around March 3, 2017,” the complaint says. “Based on his consistently exceptional career performance, his age, and all other objective metrics, Mr. Kaepernick was an ideal candidate – and, in fact, the best-qualified candidate – to fill the vacant starting quarterback positions on many NFL teams, or at the very least, the numerous vacant backup positions. Goodell himself has been quoted as stating that the NFL is about meritocracy and opportunity.

“However, during his free agency period, the purportedly ‘free market’ – whose natural function should have resulted in a bidding war (or at least high-level interest) for a quarterback of Mr. Kaepernick’s caliber – instead functioned as a peculiar institution with suspicious design and objective.”

The New York Jets and the New York Giants are named in the complaint.

Kaepernick has hired famed criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos to represent him.

Geragos has represented other celebrities and high-profile clients, such as Michael Jackson, Gary Condit, former first brother Roger Clinton, Winona Ryder, Nicole Ritchie and Chris Brown.

Geragos later confirmed the validity of the grievance in a statement provided to Pro Football Talk.

“If the NFL (as well as all professional sports leagues) is to remain a meritocracy, then principled and peaceful political protest – which the owners themselves made great theater imitating weeks ago – should not be punished and athletes should not be denied employment based on partisan political provocation by the Executive Branch of our government," Geragos says in a statement, per Pro Football Talk. "Such a precedent threatens all patriotic Americans and harkens back to our darkest days as a nation. Protecting all athletes from such collusive conduct is what compelled Mr. Kaepernick to file his grievance.”

Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem last year to protest against police brutality and racial injustice, a gesture that spread to other players on other teams.

But Kaepernick’s defiance drew the wrath of many fans, including Trump, who said the protest disrespects the flag and armed service members.

Trump even encouraged owners to fire players who participate in the protests. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said his team would bench players who don’t stand for the national anthem.

In proving that teams staged a group boycott against him, Kaepernick faces a tougher challenge than the Denver Broncos defense.

Kaepernick would have to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that more than one team owner or executive actually had a discussion and plotted to keep him out of football.

Collusion also doesn't require all 32 teams to be working together. As few as two individuals can collude against a player to trigger a legitimate antitrust infraction, according to legal experts.

If Kaepernick can prove so much as an email exchange or a text message or a phone call took place between just two people agreeing not to sign him, the CBA stipulates he could claim economic damages (likely the average contract QBs were getting from teams this offseason), as well as additional compensation equal to double whatever those lost wages calculate to.

In the 1980s, free-agent baseball players proved MLB owners were conspiring against them to keep salaries down. An arbitrator awarded the players $280 million in damages.

Two years ago, Barry Bonds claimed MLB owners were also colluding against him when he was a radioactive free agent dogged by steroid allegations in 2007.

He could not produce hard evidence teams were working against him and arbitrator Frederic Horowitz ruled against Bonds – an example of what happens if you bring a collusion claim based on circumstantial evidence. Winning, experts said, requires more than just every team taking a pass on you.

"The challenge with making a successful collusion claim, both under antitrust law and under a sports collective bargaining agreement, is factually proving the wrongdoing," Marc Edelman, a sports law expert and law professor at Baruch College, said.

Giants owner John Mara has said he would be skittish about signing Kaepernick.

"All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about that issue," Mara told Sports Illustrated. "If any of your players ever (kneel for the anthem), we are never coming to another Giants game. It wasn't one or two letters. It was a lot ... It's an emotional, emotional issue for a lot of people, more so than any other issue I've run into."