If he gets Ray rice'd or Kaepernick'd it will be his career.
The NFL owners so obviously collude, it is insane. I'm not going to be suprised if Kaepernick wins his lawsuit.
He'll eventually be back, and Ray Rice would likely have been back as well if he hadn't been an aging players in an expendable position coming off of an unspectacular year where he barely averaged 3 yards a carry.
Also, I'd be shocked if there was express collusion by the owners. Implicit agreement that certain players will not be immediately re-employed after certain incidents so that there isn't a race to the bottom that is ruinous to everyone in the league through public scrutiny and lost ratings? Sure, but we've seen teams like Washington, Oakland, and Dallas contravene that purported code.
As you know, I'm pretty reliably on the side of the employee and union: it's literally my job. But the fact of the matter is that coaches/teams/owners/organizations have several bona fide business interests in maintaining a cohesive and well-behaving team, a decent reputation, and a certain level of approval from casual fans. All of those interests are undermined by public incidents like this. And even if it was a
clearly non-criminal act, like for instance a player shouting racial slurs on camera, the mere fact that it's not criminal does not void those interests.
As far as Kaepernick goes, that's a harder subject. He was definitely a top 20 quarterback with top 10 upside. But he also wanted a lot of money, and that gets weighed alongside his baggage - and there was/is
absolutely reason to worry about the typical NFL fan boycotting his team.
I think a better case for blackballing/discrimination would be Kerry Rhodes. After rumors of him being gay surfaced, he was immediately unable to find work despite being one of the league's better safeties.
