Jay Z sold Colin Kaepernick out for personal monetary gain.
There, I said it. I mean, somebody had to. Because we’ve all been thinking it, even if we’ll never admit it.
Last week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell put the final nail in Kaepernick’s coffin when he informed us that the league had “moved on” during the owners’ meetings in Texas.
“This was … about creating an opportunity, which Colin’s representatives came out in early October and we created that opportunity. It was a unique opportunity — an incredible opportunity and he chose not to take it. I understand that. And we’ve moved on here,” said Goodell.
The “unique opportunity” he was speaking about was the last-minute sham of a workout that the league tried to put together that was supposedly going to showcase Kaepernick’s talents. The verbiage that Goodell uses when discussing Kaepernick is always interesting, especially when the workout was far from an actual opportunity.
Kaepernick was asked to sign a waiver that would only benefit the NFL, along with participating in a workout without any media transparency in which he only had four days to prepare.
That’s not an opportunity, that’s a set-up.
Given Goodell’s and the NFL’s actions over the years – even when you exclude the fact that Kaepernick has been blackballed all because he just wanted the police to stop killing unarmed black people – when it comes to any type of social issues, no one should be surprised at how the league has handled things.
But Jay Z, that’s a different conversation.
“I think we’ve moved past kneeling and I think it’s time to go into actionable items.”
Remember when Jay Z said that at that press conference with the NFL back in August?
Well, since then the only “actionable items” that have taken place since Jay Z and the NFL became partners are a concert with Meek Mill and Meghan Trainor, the selling of some t-shirts, and the announcement of Jennifer Lopez and Shakira performing at the Super Bowl.
I never knew awareness had an expiration date, or that Top-40 hits were the cure to racism.
“We forget that Colin’s whole thing was to bring attention to social injustice,” Jay Z said during that same August press conference. “In that case, this is a success. This is the next phase. There [are] two parts of protesting. You go outside and you protest, and then the company or the individual says, ‘I hear you. What do we do next?’
“For me it’s like action, [an] actionable item, what are we gonna do with it? Everyone heard, we hear what you’re saying, and everybody knows I agree with what you’re saying. So what are we gonna do? You know what I’m saying? Help millions and millions of people, or we get stuck on Colin not having a job.”
It’s as if Jay Z views Kaepernick as the sacrificial lamb, while he’s getting to take home the fatted calf.
But in the same way I said we shouldn’t be shocked at how the league has handled this, that same sentiment could be said about Jay Z. Especially given that some of his past lyrics line up perfectly with what he’s said and done over the last few months.
“But don’t be mad at him (me) when it’s on to the next one.”
That’s a bar from 2009.
“Oh, he’s good, no he would never sell out, he’s so hood.”
That one is from 2002. And as we all know, change is inevitable.
And for those of you that are still in denial and would argue that Jay Z has matured over the years, well here’s a bar from the “4:44” album, his last solo project from 2017.
“There was a time America wouldn’t let us ball. Those times are now back, just now called Afro-tech.”
Since Jay Z rarely gives interviews, whenever he talks he’s always given us things to chew on. And since that day in August, we haven’t heard from him. When Kaepernick’s workout with the NFL crumbled, Jay Z didn’t say a thing. When the video footage from the workout was released and Kaepernick told the NFL and its owners to “stop running from the truth,” Jay Z was mute.
So, since he hasn’t updated us, I guess we just have to go off some of his last words.
“You’d have to ask him. I’m not his boss. I can’t just bring him into something. That’s for him to say,” said Jay Z when he was asked why he didn’t involve Kaepernick in his deal with the NFL.
Jay Z is right, he’s not Kap’s boss. But he could have been his voice and an advocate.
However, that’s probably too much to ask of a person who once told us he had “Super Bowl goals,” on a song that was quite-fittingly titled, “Family Feud.”
