The NFL has invited Colin Kaepernick to attend a one-on-one meeting with commissioner Roger Goodell and is waiting on a response from the embattled quarterback, a league spokesman told ESPN’s Jim Trotter.
Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, texted Kaepernick on Oct. 31 to update him on the ongoing talks about social issues between players and owners, league spokesman Joe Lockhart told Trotter on Tuesday.
The NFL does not want to have a third-party mediator involved in its discussions with players and owners on social issues.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, along with several owners and at least two other NFL executives, will be deposed and asked to turn over all cellphone records and emails in relation to the Colin Kaepernick collusion case against the league.
Colin Kaepernick has agreed to attend a formal mediation session that players have requested with the NFL, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The NFL hasn’t yet agreed to the session.
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At the end of the text message, Vincent extended the invitation for Kaepernick to meet with Goodell, according to Lockhart, who said the league has not heard back from the former San Francisco 49ers star.
Lockhart said earlier Tuesday during a conference call that the NFL would welcome Kaepernick’s participation in its larger meetings involving league executives, players and owners.
A league source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter last week that Goodell, Vincent and NFL senior vice president of player engagement Arthur McAfee will be deposed and asked to turn over all cellphone records and emails in relation to Kaepernick’s collusion case against the NFL.
Kaepernick’s attorney said in October that the free-agent quarterback had filed a grievance under the collective bargaining agreement, alleging collusion against signing him to an NFL contract.
The filing, which demands an arbitration hearing on the matter, says the NFL and its owners “have colluded to deprive Mr. Kaepernick of employment rights in retaliation for Mr. Kaepernick’s leadership and advocacy for equality and social justice and his bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States.”
After filing the grievance, Kaepernick tweeted that he did so “only after pursuing every possible avenue with all NFL teams and their executives.”
Kaepernick drew national attention last season when he knelt during the national anthem before games to protest social injustice. His kneeling led to a movement that has spread throughout the league while also being vilified by others, including President Donald Trump.
Kaepernick has not been with an NFL team since severing his contract with the 49ers in March. Sources told ESPN at the time that Kaepernick would stand during the anthem in 2017.
