Colin Kaepernick faces an uphill legal battle against the NFL, but his lawyer certainly is confident.
Kaepernick’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, recently discussed the case on his podcast “Reasonable Doubt” with co-host Adam Carolla, and Geragos doesn’t think it’s going to be as much of a battle as most people think.
“What you need is the email from … Goodell to the owners, you need that smoking gun of the ‘don’t hire this guy,’ ” Carolla said, via ProFootballTalk.
“We have very good reason to believe that that exists,” Geragos replied.
Kaepernick filed a grievance against the league’s owners last Sunday, citing collusion to keep him out of the NFL, and Geragos explained that the evidence they need can come in many forms.
“The interesting thing will be when the discovery comes, and I expect the discovery to be very quickly,” Geragos said. “You know, you can’t erase stuff anymore like you used to be able to; texts, emails, things of that nature.”
And while some people believe this is a fight Kaepernick and Geragos can’t win, the lawyer believes that filing under the NFL’s labor law and not in federal court will make it easier.
“Sometimes I just want to tear what little hair I have on the head out when I see legal commentators say, ‘Oh, this is this uphill battle, it’s that uphill battle,’ ” Geragos said. “Guys, the conspiracy statute in federal court is much tougher than the collusion standard in the(NFL’s) CBA. … And every day federal prosecutors are able to prove conspiracy. So I do not think it’s as uphill as battle as people make it out to be, in fact I think it’s fairly obvious at this point that there has been collusion.
“But I don’t need to sit here and litigate it so much as let’s see what happens on Sunday in the quarterback situation and whether somebody signs him. I still have a pretty good feeling somebody’s gonna sign him.”
Perhaps Kaepernick will see an NFL field sooner than most people think.
Thumbnail photo via Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports Images
