Controversy continues to swirl around rapper Jay-Z’s lucrative partnership deal with the National Football League (NFL) for halftime entertainment consolation and social justice causes. Many say Jay-Z – a former drug dealer – sold out free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick for a quick buck.
Kaepernick settled a discrimination lawsuit against the NFL for a reported $10 million. But he has expressed a desire to play for any team that will sign him. Kaepernick was blackballed by the NFL for taking a knee during the National Anthem.
Sports journalist Jemele Hill was among the first to call out the aging rapper for sitting down at the table without Kaepernick.
In an op-ed for The Atlantic, she noted that Jay-Z was, “Ironically, one of the people who… advised Scott not to perform at the Super Bowl” last year.
“Clearly Jay-Z’s support of Kaepernick only went so far. Regardless, why would Jay-Z waste any of his enormous social and cultural capital on the NFL when he doesn’t need the league’s platform, money, resources, or validation?”
She added: “Jay-Z isn’t getting enough out of the deal to justify the sacrifice of some of his credibility. This alliance plays right into the NFL’s hands, because the league seems determined to banish any memory of Kaepernick with its recent social-justice efforts—even though it’s likely that Jay-Z and the NFL wouldn’t even be entering into this arrangement if Kaepernick hadn’t taken a knee in 2016.
“By leaving Kaepernick completely out of the mix, Jay-Z is now complicit in helping the NFL execute its strategy. Now he is an accomplice in the league’s hypocrisy,” she wrote.
