I have said before CK was a backup level QB that created more baggage than he was worth and wanted starter money, so I don't see that they needed to collude for him to not get an NFL job.
But let's say that the owners colluded to keep him off the field so that he would not take a knee to raise awareness of what he considers a biased targeting of blacks by the police. If that is true, I am not sure how a settlement whether it be for $8M or $80M is a win for what he started this whole thing about.
If his intent was to create a spectacle around his flagging career leading to an end game of a financial windfall from the NFL, then he most certainly won. If his goal was to start a dialog that would lead to improvement in race/police relations, his decision to take the money and run with no required admission from the NFL is a complete sell out, just as Larry Johnson and others have said.
For those extolling a CK thrashing of the NFL, would you say Rosa Parks was the victor if she had quietly moved back to the back of the bus for a lifetime Montgomery bus pass?
Would Vivian Malone Jones, Dave McGlathery and James Hood been triumphant if rather than facing the hardship of being the first blacks to be forcefully admitted to the Univ of Alabama, they settled for a full ride at Tuskegee University allowing the state of AL to continue segregating schools with impunity?
Would you be saying MLK Jr had won if he had been banned from giving his, "I have a dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial and sued the fed gov for and received an undisclosed settlement to just go away?
Whatever the #'s , CK had a big win for himself yesterday, but by settling for what amounts to Matt Barkley's salary for one season from each team to be a good boy and be (contractually) quiet about it is a huge L for the cause he professes to be so passionate about, as the # of protesting players had dropped to 2, Reid and Kenny Stills, by mid season this year.
I don't recollect a significant social equality figure ever agreeing to a confidential "I got mine" settlement that elicitedsocial change. I could be wrong, but no one comes to mind.