An NFL owner testified under penalty of perjury that he changed his mind about hiring NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick because of President Trump’s comments, Kaepernick’s attorney Mark Geragos told me on my podcast “Straight Aim” Tuesday .
The Kaepernick legal team has already conducted more than 14 depositions of league coaches, managers and owners including billionaire Patriots owner Bob Kraft Geragos said, revealing that several owners have testified that Trump and/or Kaepernick’s position regarding the national anthem influenced their hiring practices.
“In this civil case, there’s no doubt that the existing coaches — and I’m talking about Super Bowl-winning coaches — have testified under oath that he’s a starting quarterback in this league, and so that’s mind boggling,” Geragos said. “When you ask them … specifically why he isn’t he being hired … they say because of the national anthem policy.”
“The only reason — and the owners will admit that — they haven’t signed him is they’re afraid of Trump, and they’ve colluded because of Trump,” Geragos said.
Geragos said the new NFL national anthem policy only helps Kaepernick’s case and he didn’t think the NFL would be “stupid enough” to change the national anthem Policy, “but they did.”
The new policy requires NFL players to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner” if they are on the field, but also gives them the option to remain in the locker room without penalty. Teams with players on the field who refuse to stand will be fined and the players themselves could be subject to discipline from their clubs or the NFL.
“This substantiates everything we have thought all along and just proves that they colluded,” Geragos said. “I think clearly the fact that they said it (the vote) was (said to be) unanimous, yet then it startled to trickle down that two of the owners abstained and then another said that he would absorb it, and then another owner called it idiotic and then Steve Kerr called it idiotic, I think it’s clear you can use that as a piece of evidence to show that they’ve colluded.”
“Yea, we are clearly gonna use it,” Geragos replied.
When asked whether the NFLPA will legally challenge the new NFL Anthem Policy, Geragos said, the Anthem policy will “absolutely” be challenged but that he could not cite who will be filing a suit.
As for the NFL, Geragos said, “They’ve made the choice they are gonna opt on the white nationalistic side as opposed to any other demographic, “ commenting that the NFL was doing polling based on demographics and ethnicity and nationality.
Following the announcement of the new NFL anthem policy, Vice President Mike Pence tweeted an article mentioning the new policy with the hashtag #winning. Geragos responded on Twitter by tweeting a link to a federal criminal law 18 USC 227 which makes it a crime for the President or Vice President to influence private employment decisions solely on the basis of partisan political affiliations, and hash tagged it #winning.
Geragos discussed on the podcast why he believes the President is committing a federal crime by influencing the NFL’s hiring practices and whether the President can be indicted by the Department of Justice on that basis. Geragos said there will be a “direct consequence” for Pence’s actions. Listen to the discussion here.
Amy Dash is an attorney, host on the Law&Crime Network and a CBS Sports Radio Legal Analyst. Follow her at @amydashtv.
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