Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid have reportedly agreed to terms with the NFL on their collusion lawsuits, and on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal said the league would settle the nearly 18-month dispute for less than $10 million.
Blavity reported Kaepernick and Reid's legal teams announced they had reached a compromise with the NFL in February, however, both sides signed a confidentiality agreement, so the details of the settlement were not made public.
While it's unclear how the $10 million will be divided between both parties, The Boston Globe writes both players will receive an equal payout after attorney fees are calculated and dispersed.
The final amount is far less than initially anticipated. Had Kaepernick taken the NFL to trial and won, the 31-year-old could have been granted nearly nine times more than it's rumored he received.
Andrew Beaton of the WSJ writes:
"If Mr. Kaepernick had won his grievance, the league's collective bargaining agreement with its players would have entitled him to damages worth up to three times what an arbitrator determined he lost as a result of the collusion. If Mr. Kaepernick's market value had been judged to be a total of $30 million over the two seasons he was sidelined — a ballpark price tag for a player of his caliber — he could have been awarded $90 million from the ruling."
Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman believes Kaep received a lot more but cannot disclose the specific number due to the non-disclosure stipulation.
While I never believed Kaepernick’s settlement was $30 or $40 or 50 mil, I also don’t believe any way in hell it’s less than ten.
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) March 21, 2019
Kaepernick first took a knee on September 1, 2016, during the national anthem of a preseason game when he played quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Reid, who currently plays safety for the Carolina Panthers, soon followed in the footsteps of his former teammate by also kneeling in protest of police brutality and racial inequality.
After going unsigned for the remainder of the 2016 season and the entirety of the 2017 campaign, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the league alleging owners were punishing him for kneeling and preventing him from signing with another team. Shortly after, Reid opened his complaint against the NFL.
Neither side has released a statement following The Wall Street Journal's report.
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