There are some important things to take away from the collusion settlement between the NFL, Colin Kaepernick, and Eric Reid. I believe it is instructive for other professional athletes, as well as larger movements for justice to outline them in detail.
The first is that you can take a stand on principal and still come out ahead in the long run.
Some estimate the settlement to be in the range of $60-$80 million. It is unclear if that is for both or if that is just Kaepernick’s share. Regardless, in Reid’s case, he just signed a 3-year extension with the Panthers worth $22 million. Surely his share is at least $7 million, which more than recoups what he would have made before signing with the Panthers this year. In Kaepernick’s case, Forbes magazine does a really good job of using multiple models to assess what his value would have been over the 2017-2018 seasons. Even if he were signed as a backup, he would have made $4-$10 million. As a starter; $21-$35 million. The wild card, even if he signed as a backup, is the Case Keenum factor. Keenum signed as a backup with the Vikings and parlayed a great season into a $36 million deal, $25 million of which was guaranteed. Given that Kaepernick is better than Keenum and that 32 NFL starting QBs will not all play 16 games, it is not at all beyond the realm of possibility that Kaepernick could have done the same. According to the Forbes models, add about another $21 million for damages and projected lost wages and you could get to about $56 million. This does not count the Nike income estimated to be in the millions, as well as the book and movie deals, and the speaking circuit fees, which he has yet to tap. Most of what I just cited would not have been available had he not protested. So regardless of your assumptions and math, Colin Kaepernick is way ahead!
The second takeaway is that the conventional thinking of athletes, their agents and PR professionals about avoiding hot button political issues to protect one’s “brand” is often wrong!
To understand this, one must come to realize that corporate America is amoral. It could not care less about the right or wrong of the issue. It only cares about profits. If it could make a commercial about Trump, the Alt-Right and Klan, and make money, it would do it tomorrow. The other factor is that a lot of people are sheep. How many people wearing those Che Guevara t-shirts do you believe actually know anything about the man or his cause? Nike understood this well and cashed in on the Kaepernick’s “martyrdom”.
Kaepernick and Reid are not the only examples. Marshawn Lynch, who was never the poster child for corporate America in its search for pitchmen, made up to $5 million a year from Skittles. Allen Iverson made $40-$50 million in endorsements as the Prince Athlete of the Urban Hip-Hop Counterculture. Even today, he has a lifelong contract with Reebok.
Yet, another lesson is that one may have to take a step back before moving forward. But that is not at all a foreign concept in sports. Mediocre teams are always pondering if they want to stay average or tear the whole thing down and start over, with the goal of creating something better in the long run. If we transfer that line of thinking to our politics, maybe we can get off the “lesser of the two evil”, Democrat/Republican merry-go-round and build a better alternative.
Finally, the last thing to take away is that labor has more leverage than fans. This is to say that one would be hard pressed to make the case that the various protesting of the NFL, though I applaud for intent, played much of a role in this outcome. After all, NFL ratings were up last year for the first time in 3 years.
Now, none of this guarantees that Kaepernick will ever again play in the NFL. In fact, part of the settlement may have been that he never plays again. No one knows. What it does show is that athletes can indeed take a stand for issues larger than themselves and come out on the other end more than validating their role model status. Let’s hope more take note and follow suit.
