No winner, just anger in Kap deal

There are only two raging subjects on social media this week.

One: The Wall

Two: Colin Kaepernick

Since this isn’t a political column, I’ll leave immigration arguments to people who have a lot more background than I do.

But Kaepernick?

Now there we have a topic I can handle.

You’ve probably heard that Kaepernick and former teammate Eric Reid — who knelt alongside Kap during the national anthem when both were with the 49ers — settled their collusion case against the NFL.

Both sides are bound by confidentiality agreements, but in this day and age, there’s no such thing as a secret.

That may be a spy drone following you to work.

Or Mark Zuckerberg.

So, since confidentiality is a joke, we know that — give or take a few dollars here and there — Kaepernick and Reid each received $20 million from the league to make that lawsuit go away.

SINCE THE settlement last week, no one can check Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or probably even their mailbox without reading angry, spiteful, argumentative opinions about Kaepernick and the deal.

Everyone has picked a side, and there doesn’t seem to be any middle ground, either.

Plenty of people are teeing off on Kaepernick, calling him a crap quarterback and unpatriotic jerk who somehow scammed the NFL for millions — and that’s all he wanted in the first place.

This group claims the lawsuit was never about social justice, and that Kaepernick knew he was finished as a QB.

When he couldn’t get a job in the league, he sued and always hoped to settle because he couldn’t prove collusion.

And, how shall I put this…??

The anti-Kap side is almost entirely white, which kind of means that he probably doesn’t have much support in North Idaho.

It’s just a fact.

We’re almost all white around here.

If you’re a local who supports Kaepernick, his causes and the lawsuit, I apologize.

But you’re probably in the minority.

THERE IS also a strong pro-Kaepernick side on social media.

This group points out that Kap quarterbacked a team in the Super Bowl, and given the dozens of stiffs who have found QB work on various teams around the NFL since Kap knelt down…

There was obvious collusion by the league to freeze him out.

The pro-Kap argument also includes the league’s history of bullying its players and other employees, covering up concussion research because ex-players were dying, and so forth.

No doubt Mark Geragos, the attorney representing Kaepernick and Reid, could have presented a highlight film of laughable play by quarterbacks hired while Kap remained unemployed.

Ironically, the Seahawks figure into this whole scene, since Pete Carroll genuinely wanted Kaepernick to back up Russell Wilson two years ago.

Kap visited Seattle (the only team to host him), but then suddenly the Seahawks said no, with Carroll offering the ridiculous explanation that Kaepernick was “too good to be a backup.”

Was there a quick buzz from Roger Goodell?

The suit settlement suggests there might have been.

I THINK it’s clear the NFL had something to hide here.

This league simply does not cave in to anybody, and the fact that they gave up some money in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement tells you that there is some unpleasant evidence (emails exchanged with clubs, something like that) that the NFL did not want to show up in a courtroom.

On the other hand, proving collusion is difficult — ask Robert Mueller — and I suspect Geragos didn’t think they’d actually get a winning legal decision.

But if you’re anti-Kaepernick, you argue that the guy should have taken the thing to court anyway, even if he lost — just to embarrass the NFL.

The pro-Kap faction says that’s nonsense, that the money does matter and that the two players made their point by forcing the league to settle.

And yes, despite what you’ve heard, Kaepernick HAS already donated more than a million dollars to various charities for underprivileged kids, and he claims a large chunk of the settlement will be heading the same way.

Me, I think everybody involved in this mess comes out looking tarnished.

I don’t trust the NFL as far as I could throw the Rams’ new $5 billion stadium, and I think Kaepernick took a fading career and turned it into a racial cause while making himself a celebrity.

Was he sincere all along?

I don’t know.

Let’s see what happens to that $20 million.

Ask me then.

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball each Tuesday.

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Twitter: @BrandNewDayCDA

Email: scameron@cdapress.com