Kaepernick Reflects on Jay-Z, NFL and New Memoir
Nearly a decade after Colin Kaepernick first knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback is returning to the public conversation with a new memoir — and with pointed words for the rapper Jay-Z over his 2019 partnership with the NFL. Kaepernick’s book, The Perilous Fight, is due out Sept. 15, 2026, and his interviews with NPR’s Morning Edition and NBC News have renewed attention on the protest that ended his playing career and reshaped a national debate over race, policing and patriotism.
Context
In 2016, Kaepernick sat during the anthem on Aug. 14 and then knelt alongside teammate Eric Reid on Sept. 1 — a gesture that spread across professional sports and turned him into one of the country’s most recognizable athlete-activists. It also cost him his career. He has not played in the NFL since that season, and in 2017 he filed a grievance alleging owners had colluded to keep him out of the league. The case settled in 2019.
Kaepernick told NPR he still prepares as if he might one day return. “If there’s a small chance of success or probability, my goal is to be able to go out and capture that,” he said.
The book reaches back far beyond the summer of 2016. It opens with a memory of neighborhood children tying him to a rose tree — an early encounter with racism as the adopted Black son of white parents. Kaepernick told Morning Edition that growing up, he was not always sure the people closest to him would understand what was happening to him.
Disappointment With Jay-Z
The memoir revisits Jay-Z’s decision in August 2019 to partner with the NFL through his entertainment company, Roc Nation, which advises on Super Bowl halftime talent and works with the league on social justice initiatives. The deal landed while Kaepernick remained out of the league and, he said, while players were still protesting.
“I find it disappointing,” Kaepernick told NPR. “I had seen him come out publicly [to] support me, wear my jersey on Saturday Night Live. I had reached out prior to try to connect with him just to say thank you.”
“His organization, Roc Nation, tried to recruit me as an athlete previously, which I had turned down at that point,” he continued. “And then to see him come out and sign a deal with the NFL to deliberately undercut and undermine the protest is disappointing, to say the least.”
Kaepernick also said he was frustrated to finally receive a phone call from the rapper, which he believed was aimed at anticipating questions about the partnership. “That’s the only reason that he had called — to be able to say that he had spoken to me in that press conference,” he said. He further claimed Roc Nation sought to place negative stories about him in the media, saying reporters called his camp to validate claims that he no longer wanted to play football.
NPR reached out to Roc Nation for comment and did not hear back. In the wider NBC News interview, Roc Nation declined to comment and the NFL — which has long denied blackballing Kaepernick — also declined.
In July 2026, Jay-Z referenced Kaepernick during impromptu raps at Yankee Stadium concerts, saying the quarterback “took a check” from the NFL and had to sign a non-disparagement agreement. Kaepernick said he did not sign such an agreement, and described the remarks as evidence of a “guilty conscience.”
The NFL and a Lost Career
Kaepernick frames his exile from the league as a warning to other players. “I think this was really a dynamic of we need to make an example out of Colin in this situation to try to send a message to the rest of the players to stay in line,” he told NPR.
He points to a broader struggle over player power. “The amount of power that players have within the NFL is significant. I don’t think they truly realize that power, and I think the protests help expose some of that,” he said, adding that the league’s leadership appears afraid of players recognizing it.
He has not watched an NFL game since leaving the league, telling NBC News he watches college football instead, and he has been skeptical of the league’s racial justice gestures. “‘End Racism’ in the back of the end zone is a great marketing campaign, but what are the actions behind it?” he said.
Analysis
Kaepernick’s return to the spotlight arrives in a markedly different cultural and political climate than the one that greeted his protest. Corporations and universities have rolled back diversity initiatives, and some high-profile athletes have retreated from political stances. The Target boycott — over the retailer’s rollback of DEI practices — has become a fresh test of alignment: Kaepernick is honoring the boycott and will not sell his memoir in Target stores, while Jay-Z drew criticism for releasing an exclusive version of “Reasonable Doubt” at the retailer.
The juxtaposition of the two men has come to represent a wider argument about how to advance racial equity — through institutional partnership or through refusal to engage. Kaepernick’s answer, a decade on, remains the latter. As he writes in the memoir, he does not want his community to conclude “that if you fight for Black folks, it’s over for you.”
His post-football work has continued outside the gridiron. He runs Know Your Rights Camp, an AI company called Lumi Story, and a production house, Kaepernick Media. In August 2026 he pledged another $1 million to community organizations; Know Your Rights Camp has funded 150 independent autopsies and provided legal grants and bail relief.
The memoir also corrects a widely repeated detail: Kaepernick writes that it was teammate Eric Reid, not Army veteran Nate Boyer, who suggested kneeling.
What’s Next
The Perilous Fight arrives Sept. 15, with a book tour that partners with the National Association of Black Bookstores. The full interview transcript is available from NPR. Asked whether the protest was ultimately worth it, Kaepernick did not hesitate. “Absolutely,” he told NPR.
With the memoir’s release and continuing questions about the NFL’s commitment to the causes his protest raised, the debate Kaepernick ignited in 2016 — over who gets to speak, and at what cost — shows little sign of fading.