Colin Kaepernick Says Jay-Z Became NFL’s “Black Face”

The NFL’s partnership with Roc Nation is back under fire after Colin Kaepernick directly connected Jay-Z to conversations league owners were having about how to respond to protests against racial injustice. Kaepernick argues that the Hip Hop mogul eventually became the prominent Black figure some owners wanted positioned alongside the league while the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback remained unsigned.

During a September 16 interview with MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas, Kaepernick said he believes the arrangement can be traced to a private 2017 meeting between NFL players, team owners and league officials. According to MeidasTouch, Kaepernick said owners were searching for someone who could help them publicly navigate the backlash surrounding players kneeling during the national anthem.

He specifically pointed to Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula and described Jay-Z’s place, saying, “We then see Jay-Z step into that role and effectively fill the void that the NFL owners were looking for, is that Black face to be able to subvert the protests.”

That is Kaepernick’s description of the conversation, not Pegula’s exact reported wording. When audio from the confidential meeting became public in 2018, Yahoo Sports reported that Pegula suggested the league needed “a face, as an African-American” who could appear in the media and give owners someone they could “fall in behind.”

Roc Nation entered its formal relationship with the league two years later. According to the NFL’s August 2019 announcement, Jay-Z’s company agreed to advise the league on live entertainment, including major performances such as the Super Bowl, and to work with its Inspire Change social justice initiative.

Kaepernick now argues that Jay-Z’s arrival gave owners the type of public representative they had discussed during the 2017 meeting. The partnership was controversial as soon as it was announced, especially because Kaepernick still hadn't returned to an NFL roster. During the 2019 rollout, Jay-Z defended working with the league and said he believed the movement had reached a different stage. As The Washington Post reported at the time, Jay-Z said, “I think we’ve moved past kneeling. I think it’s time for action.”

Kaepernick has not played in an NFL game since the 2016 season. His renewed criticism of the Roc Nation partnership arrives as he promotes his memoir, The Perilous Fight, and revisits how the league responded to the protests that began a decade ago. In his telling, Jay-Z’s deal with the NFL cannot be separated from what owners were privately discussing before Roc Nation ever entered the picture.