Former Papa John's CEO John Schnatter has been informed that Colin Kaepernick's legal team seeks to depose him as part of the quarterback's collusion case against the NFL, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Schnatter earned criticism within his company and outside of it for remarks he made on an earning's call during the season, blaming the NFL's declining ratings and citing players kneeling during the national anthem for his declining sales. Specifically, Kaepernick's legal team aims to interview Schnatter about any role Cowboys owner Jerry Jones may have played in those comments; Jones repeatedly spoke out publicly against "protesting" players and owns over 100 hundred Papa John's stores and is known to have a close relationship with Schnatter.
Schnatter was quickly out as CEO in the aftermath of his comments. Kaepernick's legal team, which is already in the process of reviewing close to 100,000 documents in the evidence-gathering stage of the case, filed a grievance in midseason against the NFL. They believe one or more agents may have acted with owners and/or the league office to collude against Kaepernick, who never received a workout after being released by the 49ers last year.
His team will probe at possible ties between Donald Trump and NFL owners as well through the upcoming deposition process; Trump is close with several owners and called kneeling players "son's of b------" and imploring owners to "fire" them. Jones, in public remarks, revealed that he discussed the NFL's game-day rules regarding the national anthem, and he is one of several central figures in the grievance. Kaepernick's lawyers will interview several other owners and league officials as well.
