Jay-Z Gets the Facts Wrong About Kaepernick's NFL Settlement

During Friday night’s opener at Yankee Stadium, Jay-Z took a freestyle jab at Colin Kaepernick, claiming the former quarterback had signed a non-disparagement agreement as part of his 2019 NFL settlement. There’s just one problem: that never happened, and the receipts prove it.

In the rap, Jay-Z fired off the line:“Buddy took a check, I ain’t even mad at him, but along with that check you have to sign a non disparagement.”The comment was framed as part of a broader freestyle aimed at his critics, but sources with direct knowledge told TMZ Sports that Jay-Z’s version of events doesn’t match reality. Colin Kaepernick did not agree to keep quiet when he settled his collusion lawsuit against the NFL seven years ago.

The evidence? It’s all over social media. Kaepernick has continued to post publicly about his exile from the league, including tweets about the 1,363 days he’s been denied employment and his ongoing training regimen. If he’d actually signed a non-disparagement clause, those posts would have violated the deal immediately. As one source put it, Colin couldn’t post about how many days it’s been since a team hired him if he’d agreed not to say anything negative about the NFL. The facts simply don’t align.

What makes this moment even stranger is the timing. The Kaepernick-NFL controversy has been dormant for nearly a decade—water under the bridge, as the saying goes. Back when Roc Nation got into business with the NFL to produce Super Bowl Halftime shows, critics accused Jay-Z of selling out the activist quarterback he’d publicly supported during the kneeling movement. But that conversation had largely faded. So why resurrect it now, especially during a show otherwise celebrated for its star power and surprise performances from Beyonce, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Eminem, Usher, Nas, and Pharrell Williams?

The article notes that Colin and Tyler Perry are currently in the news for paying for funeral services and a private autopsy for Nolan Wells, a Mississippi teen who died under mysterious circumstances. That could’ve been top of mind for Jay-Z. Or it’s simply a puzzling moment in an otherwise triumphant night—one where the biggest takeaway isn’t the music or the guests, but a factually inaccurate claim about a settlement that’s been closed for seven years.

Jay-Z’s camp hasn’t responded to requests for comment, but the damage to the narrative is already done. When you’re going after someone on stage, getting your facts right matters. This time, he didn’t.