Colin Kaepernick Says Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Planted Fake Stories

Colin Kaepernick accused Roc Nation of planting false stories after he opposed Jay-Z’s controversial partnership with the NFL.

The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback detailed the alleged maneuver during a wide-ranging appearance on the All The Smoke podcast.

Kaepernick said Jay-Z first contacted him in August 2019, shortly before announcing Roc Nation’s entertainment and social-justice agreement with the league.

“I got a call from Jay-Z the day before that press conference,” Kaepernick said. “And the reason I got that call was because the day before, he did an interview with, I believe it was Andrew Beaton, and he asked him, ‘Hey, you’re doing this deal with the NFL. Have you talked to Colin?’ He was like, ‘No.’”

Kaepernick believed the call gave Jay-Z political cover rather than a genuine opportunity to discuss their opposing positions.

“So he called me the next day,” Kaepernick continued. “And this was not the first time this has happened of, ‘Hey, let me call Colin so when I go into this thing, I can say I talked to him.’ So I was familiar with this kind of game.”

The conversation marked their first direct exchange despite several years of public debate surrounding Kaepernick’s protest and removal from professional football.

“This was the first time we spoke to each other,” Kaepernick explained. “Tells me he did the deal. I was like, ‘I disagree with what you’re doing. You’re selling the culture out to a bunch of racists.’”

Jay-Z’s deal made Roc Nation the NFL’s live-music entertainment strategist and connected the company with the league’s Inspire Change initiative.

During the partnership’s announcement, Jay-Z said America had moved beyond kneeling and needed to focus on actionable change, drawing criticism from Kaepernick’s supporters.

Kaepernick said his complaint concerned how the deal used his struggle, not whether Jay-Z had permission to conduct business with the NFL.

He asked Jay-Z to leave his name out of the rollout, but he claims Roc Nation later circulated false information about him.

Kaepernick did not identify the reporters, executives or specific articles allegedly involved, and Roc Nation has not publicly answered his latest accusation.

The dispute cannot be separated from Kaepernick’s long-running battle with NFL ownership after his 2016 protest against police brutality and racial inequality.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said in 2016. “To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.”

Kaepernick became a free agent in March 2017 after opting out of his 49ers contract, which the organization reportedly planned to terminate anyway.

He filed a collusion grievance that October, alleging owners coordinated to deny him employment because his peaceful protest threatened their financial and political interests.

The NFL denied collusion, but an arbitrator rejected the league’s request to dismiss the grievance before a complete hearing.

Kaepernick and former teammate Eric Reid reached a confidential settlement with the league in February 2019, leaving no final ruling on the allegations.

The settlement did not recover $150 million, as the original draft stated, because that figure represents Kaepernick’s estimate of his lost football earnings.

Contemporaneous reporting placed the combined settlement below $10 million, although confidentiality prevents independent confirmation of each player’s payment.

Nine months later, the NFL held an unusual Saturday workout in Atlanta while teams prepared for Sunday games.

Kaepernick’s representatives objected to the league’s liability waiver, restricted media access and refusal to provide a standard employment agreement before the session.

They relocated the workout from the Atlanta Falcons’ facility to Charles R. Drew High School, allowing cameras and independent observers inside.

“I’ve been ready for three years,” Kaepernick told reporters afterward. “I’ve been denied for three years. We all know why I came out here. I showed it today in front of everybody.”

No NFL team signed him after that workout, and he has not appeared in a regular-season game since January 1, 2017.

Now 38, Kaepernick says coaches and general managers have shown interest privately while owners repeatedly prevented those conversations from producing a contract.

He continues training daily while promoting The Perilous Fight, his newly released memoir examining football, protest, identity and the personal cost of refusing silence.