Colin Kaepernick says a decade away from the NFL has not changed his belief that the league deliberately shut him out after his protest against racial injustice and police brutality.
Colin Kaepernick is speaking in depth about his relationship with the NFL as the 10-year anniversary of his national anthem protest arrives. In a new NBC News interview, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback said he no longer watches the league, declaring that it is “actively blackballing me” while also criticizing its treatment of other players who protested.
Kaepernick, 38, has not played in the NFL since the 2016 season, but he told NBC News that he still trains most mornings. His latest comments revisit a dispute that has followed him since he became a free agent in 2017, after a career that included leading the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl following the 2012 season.
The quarterback said his conclusion was based on the broader pattern of what happened after he left San Francisco, including teams declining to bring him in for workouts despite what he says was private interest from football personnel. The NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell have denied that Kaepernick was blackballed, with Goodell previously maintaining that clubs make their own roster decisions.
Kaepernick and former teammate Eric Reid, who joined him in kneeling during the anthem, filed collusion grievances against the league that were settled confidentially in 2019. Later that year, an NFL-arranged showcase for Kaepernick broke down amid a dispute over the workout terms, after which he held his own session, a chapter 24Hip-Hop covered during the 2019 workout controversy.
His criticism also extends to the league’s response to the racial-justice movement. Kaepernick described the NFL’s public shift as “so performative”, while the league has pointed to hundreds of millions of dollars committed to social-justice initiatives since 2017 and Goodell has said the NFL should have listened to protesting players earlier.
The comments arrive ahead of Kaepernick’s memoir, The Perilous Fight, which is due Sept. 15 and revisits the protest and its aftermath. The renewed spotlight follows another recent milestone for the activist and former quarterback, who was named the 2026 Muhammad Ali Humanitarian of the Year in August as his work beyond football continues.
More News, JAY-Z Reportedly ‘Had Some Influence’ in Colin Kaepernick’s NFL Workout
Tua Tagovailoa’s Instagram Comment Sparks Burner-Account Jokes After Apparent Mix-Up
September 01, 2026
