{"id":850251,"date":"2026-09-16T22:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T22:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850251\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T22:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T22:08:09","slug":"colin-kaepernick-says-nfl-owners-are-colluding-against-macklemore-after-ed-sheeran-tour-ban-colin-kaepernick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850251\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin Kaepernick says NFL owners are colluding against Macklemore after Ed Sheeran tour ban | Colin Kaepernick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colin Kaepernick has accused NFL owners of colluding against Macklemore after the rapper was removed from Ed Sheeran\u2019s tour<\/a> over comments he made onstage about Palestine.<\/p>\n

Kaepernick, whose NFL career was effectively ended<\/a> in the wake of his protests against police violence, says he sees parallels between himself and Macklemore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe part that I hope people appreciate and take away in this moment is what [New England Patriots owner] Robert Kraft and what they\u2019re saying by denying Macklemore the opportunity to go out and perform with Ed Sheeran is they are willing to collude,\u201d Kaepernick said on the MeidasTouch podcast<\/a>. \u201cThe [NFL owners] are openly colluding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macklemore had been a supporting act on Ed Sheeran\u2019s tour. During an appearance at New Jersey\u2019s MetLife stadium he told the crowd he wanted the people of Gaza and \u201cthe occupied West Bank\u201d to know \u201cwe have not forgotten about them\u201d. He also said \u201cfree Palestine\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kraft, who is a longtime supporter of Israel, and several other owners of NFL stadiums the tour was due to visit said they would not let Macklemore play at their venues. This prompted Macklemore to be removed from the tour. All four supporting acts for upcoming dates of Sheeran\u2019s tour have since withdrawn<\/a> in support of Macklemore.<\/p>\n

During the 2016 NFL season, Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in protest at police brutality and social injustice. Despite being in his prime, Kaepernick was not signed by any NFL team after he left the San Francisco 49ers at the end of that season, and he has not played in the league since. He filed a grievance against the NFL in 2017, and the case was settled in 2019<\/a> with terms of the agreement undisclosed.<\/p>\n

Kaepernick told the MeidasTouch podcast that Kraft and other NFL owners had tried to hound out Macklemore<\/a> in a similar way they did to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we filed the grievance, it was like, well, the owners wouldn\u2019t do that,\u201d Kaepernick said. \u201cEverybody just wants to win within the NFL<\/a>. And the realization is, no. They want to protect their interests. They want to protect their power. They want to protect their money. And they also want people to know that if you take an action that they don\u2019t agree with, they will come for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kraft has said his decision to ban Macklemore from the Patriots\u2019 stadium was due to his \u201crecent actions\u201d and \u201ca broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kaepernick said others may find themselves in a similar situation to Macklemore in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may not touch you today, at some point it\u2019s going to come knocking on your doorstep or someone you love\u2019s doorstep and that\u2019s not the moment to be able to take action,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should be taking action actively right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on Wednesday, NBA star Kyrie Irving said he would pay a $11,492 fine the NFL gave to Azeez Al-Shair after he displayed the name of a Palestinian girl killed by Israel<\/a> during a game. Al-Shair did so using a face marking banned by the league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colin Kaepernick has accused NFL owners of colluding against Macklemore after the rapper was removed from Ed Sheeran\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-850251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}