The NFL recently ruled that the Oakland Raiders complied with the Rooney Rule ahead of the official announcement that Jon Gruden was to be their next head coach.
That ruling was met with plenty of eye-rolls, and rightfully so. There were reports that Gruden and owner Mark Davis had an understanding he’d be the guy well before the Raiders interviewed USC offensive coordinator Tee Martin and Raiders tight end coach Bobby Johnson.
Whatever your opinion on the Rooney Rule, it seems clear that Oakland at the very least only had the interviews with those two minority coaches with a nod, nod, wink, wink mentality, knowing it was a sham.
Now we’re hearing some interesting scuttlebutt on this topic from Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report, who says he’s hearing the league went easy on Oakland because it wants the Raiders to sign Colin Kaepernick — I scratch your back, you scratch my back. At the center of it is the league’s desire for the collusion case being pursued by Kaepernick against the owners to go away.
As has been discussed, the Raiders hired Jon Gruden, and many in league believe Raiders didn’t comply with Rooney Rule. 2/
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) January 23, 2018
Here is the interesting part. I’m told the league office told the Raiders (paraphrasing): we looked out for you on the Rooney rule, now help us by signing Kaepernick, and helping to end the collusion case. 4/
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) January 23, 2018
Lots of you scratch my back, homeboy, I’ll scratch yours. The league is a highly political machine and this has become a political issue. 6/
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) January 23, 2018
Now, as Freeman noted later in his thread, he cannot prove the league is trying to strong arm Oakland into signing Kaepernick in exchange for a favorable ruling but said, “I strongly believe it did [happen].”
What’s really interesting is that we’ve already covered one story from a Bay Area beat writer, who believes the Raiders will sign Kaepernick. And obviously, if the quarterback were signed, then he’d have no way to continue pursuing the collusion case against the league owners.
This is a very interesting rumor, and one that bears watching in the upcoming months.