Colin Kaepernick says NFL owners are colluding against Macklemore after Ed Sheeran tour ban

Colin Kaepernick has accused NFL owners of colluding against Macklemore after the rapper was removed from Ed Sheeran’s tour over comments he made onstage about Palestine.Kaepernick, whose NFL career was effectively ended in the wake of his protests against police violence, says he sees parallels between himself and Macklemore.“The part that I hope people appreciate and take away in this moment is what [New England Patriots owner] Robert Kraft and what they’re saying by denying Macklemore the opportunity to go out and perform with Ed Sheeran is they are willing to collude,” Kaepernick said on the MeidasTouch podcast. “The [NFL owners] are openly colluding.”Macklemore had been a supporting act on Ed Sheeran’s tour. During an appearance at New Jersey’s MetLife stadium he told the crowd he wanted the people of Gaza and “the occupied West Bank” to know “we have not forgotten about them”. He also said “free Palestine”.Kraft, who is a longtime supporter of Israel, and several other owners of NFL stadiums the tour was due to visit said they would not let Macklemore play at their venues. This prompted Macklemore to be removed from the tour. All four supporting acts for upcoming dates of Sheeran’s tour have since withdrawn in support of Macklemore.During the 2016 NFL season, Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in protest at police brutality and social injustice. Despite being in his prime, Kaepernick was not signed by any NFL team after he left the San Francisco 49ers at the end of that season, and he has not played in the league since. He filed a grievance against the NFL in 2017, and the case was settled in 2019 with terms of the agreement undisclosed.Kaepernick told the MeidasTouch podcast that Kraft and other NFL owners had tried to hound out Macklemore in a similar way they did to him.“When we filed the grievance, it was like, well, the owners wouldn’t do that,” Kaepernick said. “Everybody just wants to win within the NFL. And the realization is, no. They want to protect their interests. They want to protect their power. They want to protect their money. And they also want people to know that if you take an action that they don’t agree with, they will come for you.”Kraft has said his decision to ban Macklemore from the Patriots’ stadium was due to his “recent actions” and “a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”.Kaepernick said others may find themselves in a similar situation to Macklemore in the future.“It may not touch you today, at some point it’s going to come knocking on your doorstep or someone you love’s doorstep and that’s not the moment to be able to take action,” he said. “We should be taking action actively right now.”Elsewhere on Wednesday, NBA star Kyrie Irving said he would pay a $11,492 fine the NFL gave to Azeez Al-Shair after he displayed the name of a Palestinian girl killed by Israel during a game. Al-Shair did so using a face marking banned by the league.