Jay-Z and Roger Goodell Talk New Deal and Colin Kaepernick: “I’m Not Knocking Anything He’s Doing and I Hope He Doesn’t Knock What I’m Doing”

On Wednesday, just one day after the NFL announced a partnership with Jay-Z for a new music and social justice campaign, Nessa Diab, girlfriend of Colin Kaepernick, took to Twitter to speak her piece on the new deal. 

In a series of tweets, Nessa scoffed at the fact that discussions for the deal reportedly began in January, and refuted claims that Hov addressed the matter with Kaepernick. Piggybacking off of Nessa’s claims, Eric Reid also called out Jay for the new deal and encouraged fans to pay attention to the timing of the rapper’s partnership with the league. 

Elsewhere, Shaun King called Jay a woke capitalist and Jemele Hill expressed her concerns, as well, as others questioned whether the deal was a slap in the face to Kaepnerick’s cause. But in a recent meeting at Roc Nation’s Office’s in New York, both Jay-Z and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell set the record straight about the deal, with Jay even clarifying his communications with Kaep, which reportedly included a heads-up conversation within the last 48 hours.

“I think that we forget that Colin’s whole thing was to bring attention to social injustice so in that case this is a success – this is the next thing,” Jay-Z said of Kaepernick’s kneeling protest. “There’s two parts of protest: the protest, and then there’s a company or individual saying ‘I hear you, what do we do next?’ For me, it’s about actionable items, what are we gonna do about it.” 

“Everyone heard and we hear what you’re saying, and everybody knows I agree with what you’re saying,” he said. “So what are we going to do? So we should, millions of millions of people, and all we get stuck on [is] Colin not having a job.”

Jay also addressed whether or not Kaep would be involved in any capacity, saying, “You’ll have to ask him, I’m not his boss. That’s for him to say.” 

“I’m not knocking anything he’s doing, and I hope he doesn’t knock what I’m doing,” Jay continued, as he confirmed he had in fact spoke to Kaep prior to announcing the deal.

Meanwhile, Goodell answered questions about Kaepernick’s unemployment and addressed whether the new partnership was “disingenuous” considering Kaepernick’s position. 

“We talked about a variety of issues. I think when we first met we talked about entertainment and how we do that, but the number one thing we went to was impact,” Goodell explained. “We can have an impact together. We can do some really positive things in our community. So to go to Jay’s point, we listen to our players. We understood what our players were saying and we created a platform, in which to help drive change in communities that Colin has raised and that other players have raised. This partnership in addition to the entertainment aspect of branded football and music together is going to help us make even greater change. We call it protest to progress.”