Key Takeaways
- Colin Kaepernick said Jay-Z’s Yankee Stadium freestyle proves he is living “rent-free” in the rapper’s head and reflects lingering guilt over Roc Nation’s 2019 NFL partnership.
- Kaepernick denied signing a non-disparagement agreement in his NFL settlement and said he had privately asked Jay-Z to keep his name out of the deal.
- While promoting his memoir The Perilous Fight, Kaepernick accused Jay-Z of “selling the culture out to a bunch of racists” and helping the league redirect attention from player protests.
To coincide with the arrival of his memoir, The Perilous Fight, Colin Kaepernick has revisited how he felt when Jay-Z signed a deal with the NFL amid criticism over how the league handled players protesting systemic racism by kneeling during the national anthem.
Kaepernick, who was released as a free agent from the San Francisco 49ers in 2016 over his protests, has appeared on multiple podcasts and broadcasts recently in promotion of his memoir. During an interview with the MeidasTouch podcast, for instance, Kaepernick said that the deal that Jay-Z’s Roc Nation signed with the NFL in 2019 was evidently a move the league pursued to avoid continued criticism.
Jay-Z publicly supported Kaepernick’s protests before signing the deal in 2019, going so far as to wear his jersey during an appearance on Saturday Night Live in 2017.
In an interview with Jemele Hill in Detroit at the National Black Footwear Forum, Kaepernick admitted he was “very surprised” by Jay-Z name-dropping him in a freestyle at Yankee Stadium in July. “I’m living rent-free there,” he joked. “We are seven years post-him doing that deal. … While you’re doing the anniversary tour to celebrate your best work, that’s the thing that’s most top-of-mind for you. That’s pretty remarkable, how bothered he is by that.”
He also appeared on Dateline NBC’s Before & After With Lester Holt, during which he suggested that Jay-Z name-dropping him at Yankee Stadium proves that Hov has some guilt about the situation.
“The backlash that [Jay-Z] received for partnering with the NFL and going counter to people’s interests in 2019 was a major problem for him, so much so that he’s still bringing it up in 2026,” he shared, as reported by Billboard. “People are now realizing, ‘Why are you so comfortable stepping into these positions that are counter to the positions that people on the ground actually want?’ And to me, I view that as speaking to a guilty conscience and trying to reposition or reframe the conversation.”
During the freestyle, Jay rapped, “They run out of characters, had to bring back up Kap again / Buddy took a check, I ain’t even mad at him / But along with that check, you gotta sign a non-disparagement / I’m the one they can’t control, y’all better be glad it’s him.”
Speaking with Time, Kaepernick denied that he signed a non-disparagement agreement with the NFL
Kaepernick also spoke about how he felt about the deal during a recent interview on SiriusXM.
“Privately had a conversation with him, I tried to be in touch with for, at that point, a couple years,” he said, as seen in the clip below. “[We] had a call a day before the press conference, because he wanted to say that he spoke to me, going into that. That is ultimately what led to the space of me saying, ‘You’re selling the culture out to a bunch of racists.’ My one ask there was, ‘Just keep my name out of it. If you’re gonna do a deal with them, do a deal with them. Keep me out of it.’ That, obviously, was not respected within the press conference or interview.”
On the more fun side of things, Kaepernick also appeared on The Adam Friedland Show, and was asked if he thinks “The Star-Spangled Banner” is a good song. “No,” he laughed. “It’s a bad song.” Friedland suggested Future’s “March Madness” should be the new National Anthem, which Kaepernick agreed was a “great choice.”
