At one point in the three-year Colin Kaepernick saga, Jay-Z publicly supported Kaepernick. In the busiest week of Kaepernick-related news and developments since he became a free-agent in March 2017, Jay-Z has said nothing.
Yes, reports last week suggested that Jay-Z had influence over the decision to stage a workout for 32 teams who have had at all times since Kaepernick became a free agent the ability to work him out whenever they may have wanted to work him out. But others connected to the workout insist that Jay-Z had nothing to do with it, suggesting that he may be simply trying to claim partial credit in order to undo some of the damage done when he partnered with the NFL and promptly downplayed Kaepernick’s quest to return to football.
Jay-Z said nothing in the days between the scheduling of the workout last Tuesday and Saturday, the scheduled date for it.
Then came Kaepernick’s non-workout workout, which disintegrated amid P.R. and/or legal maneuverings by both sides. Citing an unnamed source, SI.com reported on Sunday that Jay-Z “disappointed with Colin’s actions and believes he turned a legitimate workout into a publicity stunt.” On Monday, the management, music publishing, and entertainment company owned and operated by Jay-Z posted this tweet: “A source at Roc Nation tells us JAY-Z hasn’t spoken to any sources.”
The unnamed source presumably is named Jay-Z. So why won’t he come out and say something/anything in his own name, with his own voice? Everyone has an opinion on the Kaepernick workout, with the issue quickly becoming the latest sports-related example of the reality that we currently have two different nations of people living in the same country.
For most, the choice is binary: Either you hate Kaepernick and blame it all on him, or you support Kaepernick and blame it all on the league. (In this specific situation, it’s possible to blame both sides, and to realize this entire project was doomed from the start. More on that later today.)
Whatever Jay-Z’s position, why won’t he say what it is? For a guy who wore a Kaepernick jersey on SNL in the early months of Kaepernick’s still-lingering unemployment, the silence over the past week has become deafening.
Indeed, even if the source in the tweet from Roc Nation is Jay-Z (and surely it is), all he has said is that he’s said nothing to anyone. Maybe on this specific topic he should say something, to someone.