On February 15th, Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid reached a confidential legal settlement with the NFL. The two athletes had accused the NFL for colluding to keep them out of the league. Colin Kaepernick, who has had playoff success and above average statistics for all of his young career, has not been apart of a team since 2016 and Eric Reid has faced an abnormally high amount of drug tests since he joined Kaepernick in his stance against police brutality. Each player was reported to receive somewhere in the $60 million to $80 million range according to Bleacher Report.

The polarizing story has been a topic of discussion for some time. As sports fans, naturally, the question comes to mind as to which party “won” the settlement. At first glance, Kaepernick and company are assumed to be victorious. After all, it is not often that the loser walks away with tens of millions of dollars. However, the answer may not be as clear-cut as it seems.

It may be childish, but everyone enjoys hearing someone own up to their wrongs and admit that he or she was wrong in the first place. In this case, the public that sided with Kaepernick’s fight cannot enjoy this satisfaction. The settlements confidentiality agreement prevents the league from disclosing any information about the deal except for who was involved. The NFL does not have to say whether or not the two players were being blackballed for their political stances. Thus, the NFL never have to admit to denying a player a position on a team and millions of dollars because of his political opinion. This point can not be understated as it marks another time that big business, money and power outweigh ethics. No matter what the public believes, the league will not have to own up to their poor choices.

Kaepernick and many other NFL players took a knee during the national anthem to raise awareness of the mistreatment of African Americans in America and it certainly did. The NFL was able to avoid the public shaming that would come with oppressing a man for his political opinion that would have left a deplorable stain on the leagues history. While Kaepernick and Reid did effectively push an egregious issue into the light, the final pièce de résistance was superseded by a the NFL’s hefty checkbook.